Maxwell Caiden-Survivor A Wandering Inn Fanfiction
by Remvis
Summary: The dungeon sits. A door opens, and in walks a normal man with a knife. Sounds like the start to a bad joke, right? Well that's what Max thinks now that he has left his planet and has to fight off monsters and navigate his way through a dungeon in order to survive. All fights use D&D and Pathfinder stats and dice rolls to decide the outcome of fights. Not dead yet!
1. Chapter 1

Max was in a hurry. He had finally gotten enough money saved up where he felt comfortable enough to spend some on a new Nintendo Switch and buy a bunch of games. He was planning on buying them and spending the rest of the afternoon playing the new Fire Emblem game. He had heard that it was good, and was planning on going through all four routes, to get the full experience.

Max had just pulled up to the Gamestop. Finally, he'd be able to buy something after weeks of holding out for it! And then when he opened the door to the store, he was seriously confused when there weren't any games.

What he should have done was take a step back before the door swung shut behind him. But what was before him stunned him into trapping himself in another world. Or at least, that's what he figured later.

When he entered what he thought to be the famous game store, he had somehow entered a portal that brought him right to a long tunnel, with the occasional flaming sconce lining the rocky surface.

Where was he? He had just been about to go and buy some video games, right? This didn't look like a Gamestop...

With a loud thump, the door closed behind him, and he was startled out of his reverie. He looked behind him and saw the remains of a rickety wooden door, propped up against a wall. Max opened the door, half expecting to see the outside world. Maybe the Gamestop employees were pranking people and had renovated or something?

He panicked when all he saw on the other side of the door was just dirt. Great! He was stuck here, wherever here was. It was like magic, oh wait, magic didn't exist… He had to be dreaming right? That means that he had nothing to fear!

He smacked himself, and felt pain. Ok, not a dream. First thing that he had to figure out was where the hell he was. Clearly at the dead end of some sort of tunnel system, maybe a mine? He didn't see any pickaxes or machinery, so he wasn't positive about that last bit.

Max didn't exactly see anything, just by peering into the darkness, so he lifted one of the flaming torches out of a sconce on the wall and held it high and made his way down the tunnel. Within a couple hundred feet, it branched off the right and left. He wasn't quite positive which way to go, but chose the right direction on instinct. His instincts had always shown him the right way to go before, so he followed the path as it wound about.

The young man was about to give up on this direction and turn around, when he heard sounds coming from ahead. Thinking that it was someone, he called out, "Hello? Is anybody there?"

He should have been more cautious. From within the darkness appeared two large, blue, unblinking eyes. _That_ didn't look like something that was safe.

"Uh, sorry to disturb you, I'll just, go now."

A rush of cold filled the tunnels, and chittering could be heard from the thing in front of him. The flame on the torch he was carrying flickered, almost dying completely, and Max started shivering. From the darkness came a long, undulating tentacle, roughly the width of a tree, and he turned and ran.

Down the hall from which he came, he passed by the starting hall on the now left, knowing that it led to a dead end. He could hear clicks of _something_ following him, close behind.

What on earth was that? Where was he? Where could he hide?

He came out into a room that looked almost like a study, not seeing anything dangerous here, before his eyes settled on two doors, one looked like a closet, of sorts, and the other looked like it led further into the gloom. He weighed his options before hiding in the closet, dropping his torch to the stone ground in the process.

He opened the door, and hid among what must have been clothes, older than centuries. There were also what appeared to be sewing supplies here, but he didn't have time to think, before he heard the beast stop outside, in the room.

Max had left the closet door open a crack, and upon seeing the monster, he couldn't breath. The thing looked like a large bug, roughly the size of a rhino. Six hazer sharp mandibles hung from its mouth, and they whirred, clearly hungry for something. Icy puffs of air came from its mouth, and Max understood why the air had chilled so much. Two long tentacles hung from its backside, searching around the room for him. It walked on four long-spider like legs, and he was sure that the beast was faster than he.

With a start, he saw beady blue eyes swiping around the room for him, and he stilled, unwilling to let the beast see him. It turned its eyes towards the closet door, and made to move towards him when the door on the other side of the room opened, and _another _monster entered the room.

Max didn't know how he could get even more horrified, but this thing was just even more _wrong_ than the first beast. It looked like it could be a human, but gross, cancerous growths hung out of the creature's head, making it look a little like the winter lanterns from Bloodborne… but without the tentacle things and huge eyeballs. The creature had large bloody claws, and large spines rose when it saw the other monster, and with a sickening gurgle from its toothy mouth, it lunged for the larger beast.

The two monstrous beings tore at one another; clearly this was the second beasts territory and the first one had encroached, causing the fight. It was bloody, and Maxwell watched with growing horror and fascination as the second monster ripped the tentacles off of the bug like creature's back, before going for the legs.

The second monster wasn't to be trifled with either, as it blasted the humanoid monster with its ice breath, effectively freezing it to the spot. It maneuvered itself so that it was above the second creature, and lowered it's cutting incisors onto the monster's bulging head. A screech could be heard from the second beast, and suddenly it's arms broke from the ice that had encased them, and they lashed upwards, cutting out the bug's eyes.

Blue and purple blood fell to the ground as the two monsters tore each other to pieces, before all that was left was the main body of the humanoid beast. It had lost both of it's arms in the process, but it had clearly done _something_, as the insectile monster had caught on fire, and burnt to a crisp.

Max watched as the beast looked around the room, before a smaller pair of hands reached out from under the robes it was wearing, and picked up one of it's clawed arms and held it to it's raw stump, and was astounded when the flesh started to connect between the two pieces.

He didn't know what he was doing until he had already done it. All Max knew was that he could _not_ allow this beast to heal itself, especially not after it had taken down that monstrosity. He pulled his hidden hunting knife from it's spot on his belt, and with a cry, he thrust it into the monsters back, before taking it out and striking at it, again and again until it was still.

To be sure that the thing wouldn't just heal itself, Max cut off it's head, for good measure, before looking around the room. He needed something that would burn. The torch that he had dropped to the floor had long since gone out. He saw a fireplace in the room, already having some wood in it, and set up a fire that would make his old scoutmaster proud.

He was shaking as he pulled a zippo lighter out of his pocket and started the fire, stoking it until it was a roaring fire, and slowly fed it the body parts of the humanoid monster.

Just where was he that monsters that he couldn't even imagine roamed? This whole situation made him think of a dungeon crawl video game, the likes of Binding of Isaac or something bigger like Dungeons and Dragons.

He shook his head. There was now way that this was all real, right? But the blood and carnage that sat in the room near him was definitely real, and Max felt like throwing up. But he held it in, and sat in the room in silence. He wasn't stupid enough to think that the danger had passed. Where two monsters existed, more were surely to follow, especially if the territory was suddenly cleared up by the absence of two dangerous beasts. The man knew that he had gotten lucky with the two beasts fighting each other, but if he wanted to survive he needed a plan of action.

Not just that, but the scout in him made him calm himself. The first thing that you do in an unknown environment is to find a water and food source. Water was pivotal, without it he would die in about three days. You can go a week or so without food if you really need to, but it was just as necessary.

Next thing that Max needed after that was some form of defense. A shelter of sorts that could protect him from the beasts in the dungeon.

He looked around the room, and aside from the monster bits, it was every bit as untouched as it was when he first entered. It had a bookshelf on one side, lined with scrolls and a book or two. On the other side, a bed lay, clearly the sleeping place of the beast he was now feeding to the flames. Max was suddenly hit with exhaustion. Maybe he could rest for a bit before looking for a water source.

He made up his mind and pushed the bookshelf in front of the opening he had come from, and pulled the bed in front of the door to the rest of the tunnel system. He didn't want to get attacked from either side while sleeping, and figured that he'd get jostled if something tried to open the door, or he'd wake if something collapsed the bookshelf to get at him.

He dropped in the bed, and felt himself drift off to sleep.

When Maxwell awoke, he knew that he was hungry. There was a tell-tale gurgle coming from his stomach, and he knew that he needed to find a food source. He looked around the room once more, this time taking in a desk and some writing utensils, as well as seeing the closet once more.

"Well, where there are monsters, surely there's some sort of treasure, right? Maybe i can find something that will help me protect myself."

He searched the closet, and all he found were cloaks and robes of varying colors and sizes. Maybe some sort of wizard had once lived here? Max couldn't find anything overtly useful in the closet, and sighed, before looking at the bookshelf. Maybe there was a map or something that could help him figure out where he was.

He brought a pile of scrolls to the desk, and unfurled them one at a time. There were quite a lot of diagrams, as well as a list of plants and some that looked familiar, but the scratchy cursive gave Max pause, he was never good at reading cursive, and it looked like he was out of luck, even if it did seem to be written in english.

Near the end of the scrolls, he finally found something of note, which looked like a map. He looked it over, and pinpointed a location that looked similar to where he thought he was based on the tunnels that he had walked through already. Where he had encountered the insect like monster with tentacles, the map was labelled with something called a Idex. Max could only imagine that that was the name of the creature, or what it's species was called. There were other names on the map, which the man tried to memorize, even with the cursive.

Leonir- Gileff- A drawing of something that looked like an elephant- Hydra (Oh shit)- Ants (Don't see how those are scary, unless they're big ants)- Kappa- Grophori- and finally the simple word: Demons. While Max wasn't sure of some of the names, others seemed to be relatively dangerous, especially from what he had heard of mythology. If these demons are _actual_ demons, then he definitely didn't want to encounter them, not at all.

Max committed the locations of the monsters and where they were located to memory as much as possible. He then searched for any other landmarks, especially some sort of water source. He had an estimated two and a half days before he died of thirst.

Luckily, there were two places that might be clean water sources. One was an underground lake, notated with the word Hydra near it. Max wasn't sure if he wanted to get near a hydra just to get water regularly, but he might have to. How did the ancient greek heroes kill hydras again? All Max knew was that when you cut their heads off that more grew back to replace it. Not exactly something that he wanted to tangle with, especially since he thought that the beasts might be venomous.

The other water source was a fountain, that looked like it was in close proximity to the thing called Leonir. The fountain seemed to be closer too, so Max was sure that it would be safer to get to regardless, and if he needed to run, he could always come back here.

A thought struck him. This was a dungeon, right? That meant that there had to be traps of some sort. Maybe if he could find them and use them to kill the monsters, he'd be able to come out unscathed.

Not to mention that might allow him to get food from the beasts.

Max wasn't happy with the idea of eating monsters, but what choice did he have? There also seemed to be a garden of sorts, which the elephant drawing lived in. Maybe he'd be able to find some fruits or something there.

The next thing that Max did was lay out what he had on him. His knife, which was a bowie knife, was 12 inches in length. He had a zippo, which he had owned for a bit, but it should last for a bit if he used it conservatively. In his pocket he had his cell phone, which upon checking it saw that he had 73% battery life, as well as no signal. It stood to reason that wherever he was, he couldn't call for help.

Lastly, he had his car keys, which were useless, his wallet, which probably didn't have anything in it that he could use, and his clothes. Most of these things he couldn't objectively use, unless he needed to use his clothes to make a bandage or something, although…

He looked at the dusty old cloaks in the closet. Maybe he could use one of those instead of a shirt in an emergency.

He didn't have a hard plan or anything, really just a work in progress, but at least he had some sort of idea. It was time to take on the dungeon.


	2. Chapter 2

Maxwell lurked through the tunnel system, the dungeon corridors. He was nearing the location of the Leonir, and was loathe to find out what kind of beast it was.

He imagined that it had something to do with Lions, given the Leo part of its name, but he wasn't too positive in his ability to wrestle with a lion. But he really needed water, and hypothetically taking down a lion might give him some meat needed for food.

Max held a torch in one hand, and his knife in the other. He figured that most animals were afraid of fire in some way, so if it did turn out to be a lion of some sort, then having a flame might be to his advantage in scaring it off. Though… Lions were a type of cat, and Max wasn't sure about their ability to track based off of smell. It might try and attack him in his sleep.

Max stopped moving when he looked around the corner and a pair of beady eyes glinted in the light of the fire. He backed up a little bit when a giant rat, roughly the size of a dog pounced on the place where he had just been. He panicked, and dropped the torch, and cursed himself for his clumsiness.

The rat snarled and lunged again, it's large teeth sinking into his arm shallowly, impeded by one of the cloaks that he had taken from the closet. "Shit!" He exclaimed, and swung his knife in the direction of the rat that hung from him. He must've gotten lucky, since he stabbed it right in the head, and it went limp instantly.

Max peeled the rat off of him, and inspected the bite. It was a small incision, but it was bleeding slightly. Max looked around, and after making sure there were no more rats coming for him, he used one of the makeshift rags to tightly bind the wound. He didn't want to risk infection, so he hurried towards where he thought the fountain was after picking up his torch.

He entered a large room, and he could tell right off that he was right in assuming a lion like creature lived here: there were claw marks all over the walls and a large nest like area. Although from what Max remembered, lions slept in trees. Seeing as how there weren't likely to be a lot of trees in a dungeon, a next would have to do.

Max was about to walk further into the room when he noticed the creature crouched off to the side, clearly ready to pounce on him in a moment.

He took a moment to observe it. It looked like a lion, alright, down to the mane and the legs. The main difference was that it had a pair of deer antlers on its head. It's fur was a dark blue, however, which had helped it blend in with the darkness. If it hadn't been for the light of his torch and his wariness, he probably wouldn't have seen the beast.

It charged forwards before leaping, clearing almost 30 feet in less than a few seconds. Luckily Max was able to move out of the way, and made to stab at it. He wasn't so lucky this time, and missed the beast entirely with his knife. The young man started to panic a little bit, but held tighter to his torch. He wasn't about to drop it again, especially not against a more dangerous beast.

The leonir swiped at its adversary with it's paw, but the man dodged out of the way of it's attack once more. He was apparently pretty good at dodging, even though the most exercise he got on the regular is a short morning run every day. Max swung at the beast with his torch, and to his surprise, he caught it in the face, burning it lightly. The downside, which the man hadn't considered until just then, was that torches are pretty brittle, especially from being on fire for a while.

His torch broke as it hit the leonir, and even though the creature yowled in pain from getting some fire right to the face, Max was left with a foot long stick with a broken edge, not really something that he was keen on using to fight such a monstrosity.

The leonir was stunned from the flame, and so the man pressed the advantage and brought his knife down at it's head. He was pretty sloppy with a knife, but had managed to make a jagged cut that cut pretty deeply into its eye, drawing some blood.

This clearly angered the lion, and it surprised Max by trying to jump on him once more. Luckily, the wound that he had inflicted had made it's vision impaired, and the man watched as the beast slammed into the wall. Max couldn't believe how lucky he was getting. He stabbed once more at the beast, this time aiming for the chest, and slammed the knife down to the hilt into it before ripping it out.

The leonir turned, eyeing him with clear hatred in its one remaining eye, bleeding from both of the stab wounds that had been inflicted. It also took a look at the knife in his hands, and he held it in front of him menacingly. This thing hadn't even touched Max yet, which surprised him, but the man wasn't about to take any chances. It pounced on him one last time, clearly trying to knock the man down, and made to bite at his face.

Max brought the knife up, and drove it right between the ribcage, and he felt a shudder as the beast slumped on top of him. He gasped as the beast stilled, and felt the crushing weight of the leonir above him. This thing must be about 500 pounds!

Max pushed the beast off of himself with great difficulty, before taking in his surroundings once more. This room clearly had been the domain of the leonir, at least it had been before he had killed it. Or had he? Max looked at the beast that lay on the ground prone, and decided with a sickening thought that he should make sure of that fact, so the young man sat next to the beast and slit its throat for good measure.

Well, Max guessed that solved his food problem, at least for a couple of days before the meat spoiled. He was pretty sure that if he had salt, that he could make some sort of jerky or something that would make it last a lot longer, but all the man could do was cook the meat and hope it lasted him some time. The air down here didn't seem too saturated with moisture, so he wasn't necessarily as worried about bacteria growth than he might normally be.

Speaking of bacteria… Max needed to find that fountain and wash off this bite wound from the rat earlier. He looked around the room and couldn't find anything that looked like a fountain, but he did find another door that was busted open. Clearly the leonir had gotten in, and the young man tentatively looked around before he saw what he had been searching for.

An elegant fountain rose in the center of the room, and he realised that his throat was incredibly dry as he took it in. Without caution, the young man rushed to the fountain and drank from it as if his life depended on it, which he supposes it did.

After a minute of drinking, he took his time to unbind his bite wound, and grimaced at the flesh. It had started to heal already, and Max still wasn't sure that it was infected with something or not. Deciding that it was better to be safe than sorry, he took a moment to thoroughly wash out the wound, before making to apply a new bandage to it. Before he could, however, he was surprised when the wound slowly knit itself back together, leaving behind little more than pink flesh.

Holy shit! This fountain must have some sort of healing magic in its waters. No wonder the leonir had decided to make it's home right outside, it was a good defensible position, a good source of water, as well as healing in case it got injured.

Max gathered his wits and looked about the room once more. In the corner was a small chest, but he was wary of traps, or worse, a mimic of some sort. On the other side of the fountain laid a weapon rack that housed a couple of rusted weapons.

There was a broadsword, a small handaxe, and a spear with a rotten handle. The man shook his head at using the spear, it looked like the shaft would break the first time that he tried to use it. The handaxe was in a similar position, it's handle looking a little bit rotted. But the sword, while a bit rusted, seemed to be in decent enough shape.

Max took the sword off of the weapon rack and gave it a few swings with his right arm. The broadsword was decently balanced, but he wasn't exactly used to carrying around heavy weapons in his day to day life, so he was sure that if he had to use it for prolonged amounts of time, his arms would surely get sore.

Max took his knife in his left hand and held both the sword and the knife. It felt incredibly awkward to try and hold both of them, and he wasn't positive about fighting with a weapon in both hands. It just didn't feel right, and he was positive that he'd fumble one of them and accidentally cut himself. Not exactly on his list of priorities.

Max sheathed the knife back at his waist and held the sword. Even with it being lightly rusted, the blade still held a sharp edge, and he felt much safer with an actual weapon to defend himself.

The man gave it a couple more experimental swings, before turning back to the rest of the room. The small chest sat in the corner of the room, and aside from that, there were a few old broken pieces of furniture. He figured that he could probably use them as firewood for cooking purposes, at least until he had a more stable way of cooking food.

The chest intrigued him, but he was definitely cautious of it. Max leveled the sword at the small chest, before attempting to open it with his left hand.

Nothing bit at him, so he raised the lid higher and was relieved when the thing didn't turn out to be trapped or anything. At least, no traps triggered that he was aware of. Inside of the chest, there was a small brown bag, a ring with blue gemstones on it, and what appeared to be a potion of some sort. Max wished that he could identify what kind of potion it was, since a healing potion or something might be useful, but it very well might be some type of poison or acid.

He looked into the small bag, but for some reason all he could see was darkness. He lifted it upside down, and a book fell out of the bag. The bag must be a bag of holding! Or maybe some smaller variant, since it looked like it was made of leather. Interested in the book, the man took a glance at the cover, which was also bound in leather and wasn't titled.

Max opened up the book and was surprised to find instructions on magical spells! While he had already assumed that magic was possible, especially considering the existence of monsters clearly not of Earth, the man wasn't expecting to come in contact with it so soon into his impromptu adventure.

As interesting as learning magic might be right now, however, Max knew that he needed to eat. So he left the side room and looked at the leonir. While he had never exactly learned himself how to hunt or skin an animal, he was sure that he could learn, especially if he needed the meat for survival.

So he sat down and spent a good couple of hours trying to cut the skin off of the beast. He vaguely remembered from somewhere on the internet that you were supposed to cut along the places where the fur went in different directions, but that was really hard to tell, especially near where the mane began. Eventually he had skinned the beast, and worked at cutting the meat where he could from the bones and cartilage. He was also careful to cut away any excess fat.

Once he had a sizable amount of meat in his hands, he made his way back into the fountain room. Max knew that he needed to clean out this meat, even if it was a sloppy job. So he washed the chunk of meat in the fountain water and set about creating another fire.

Within the hour, Max was no longer hungry nor thirsty, but he was incredibly exhausted after the long day that he had. He decided that he would leave the leonir carcass out in the other room, just in case something else came by. He guessed that anything hungry enough would jump at the chance for a free meal, and in that time he might wake up and (hopefully) get the drop on it.

Max slumped into a chair that was still mostly intact, and closed his eyes. He was so tired…

[Warrior Class Obtained!]

[Warrior Level 3!]

[Skill - Lesser Dodge Obtained!]

[Survivor Class Obtained!]

[Survivor Level 1!]

[Skill - Animal Skinning Obtained!]

"...What was that?"


	3. Chapter 3

When Max woke up in the morning, he was extremely intrigued, but still wary of the fact that he was still in a dungeon. Clearly he hadn't been on some type of drugs, that would've worn off by now.

What that _did_ mean, however, was that some sort of strange RPG bullshit was going on.

Because he had clearly heard a voice in his head say that he had gained some sick classes and abilities.

"Warrior, level 3. Got lesser dodge as an ability. Probably means that it'll be harder for things to hit me, especially if I keep moving around. That's definitely going to be useful, especially in a dungeon like this. Then we got the survivor class, level 1. And the skill, animal skinning. Clearly i'll be a little bit better at that. Maybe I should pursue some sort of leatherworking? Maybe I can make my own armor? Maybe a sheath for this sword."

It was worth the thought. Max wondered how this leveling system worked out. Maybe if he did something enough, he gained the necessary experience in order to gain levels in it? That might make sense. Although, it didn't make sense why he had only levelled when he had.

Perhaps one could only gain levels when you were about to go to sleep? Basically as a means of ensuring that you had gone through a full day's worth of experience. But then why had he not gained anything from that first monster that he had killed?

Max thought that was weird. If doing actions caused levels, then why had he not gained levels as a [Rogue]? He had clearly kidden from the two fighting monsters and killed the remaining one once it's back was turned. Although that was more based off of the idea of survival, rather than an inherent need to be stealthy. So it makes sense that he'd gain some [Survivor] Experience, even if it hadn't put him over the cap for a single level.

Yesterday he had fought a giant rat, as well as something as powerful as a normal lion, and had come out on top. Gaining the [Warrior] class made sense, even if all he had on him at the time was a knife. He hadn't run from the fights, and had taken the beasts head-on.

If he was going to be fighting more often than not, as he presumed from being in a cave, then he needed to work on his defenses as well as his agility. With the [Lesser Dodge] ability, Max presumed that he'd have some sort of passive bonus to dodging. But that didn't mean shit if he wasn't actually physically able to avoid attacks.

While he at least had some dexterity from his daily runs on earth, that just meant that his physical endurance was decent. He wasn't sure about his natural ability to dodge all the time in a fight in his current state, and couldn't believe how incredibly lucky he was that the leonir hadn't taken him out.

Max ceased his musings and drank some more from the fountain, finding that it relieved tension in his shoulders from sleeping in a chair. Clearly the water had some sort of healing magic, and he was intending to fully abuse it as long as he could. He had no idea if there was a limit on how much water was in the fountain, but he knew that it would be sufficient enough for now.

He glanced at the spoils of victory. A mysterious potion, a ring with blue gems, what could be a bag of holding, and a book on magic. He wasn't sure what he was going to do with the potion, but figured he'd eventually get around to using it somewhere.

The ring was intriguing, and Max slipped it on to his right ring finger. A faint blue glow shone from the gemstones that lined it, before fading. He wasn't sure exactly what had happened, but he was certain that he had some sort of magical passive on him, and would find out what it was when it was relevant. Hopefully it wasn't a debuff, he had enough to deal with than cursed items.

The bag of holding was definitely going to be useful, and while Max wasn't sure how much exactly it could hold inside, he was going to keep this on him as much as he could.

That left the magic book. The tome looked like it had plenty of spells listed inside, although that had been only at a cursory glance last night. Maybe when he had free time he could spend a little bit of time studying magic? Who knew, maybe he had an aptitude for it!

Max put the book back into the bag of holding, and tied the bag to his belt, right by his knife. He looked around the room one last time, before making his way into the leonir den.

The leonir lay dead still, a small pile of blood pooling beneath where he had left it. It's skin was off to the side, and coming to a quick decision, Max opened the bag and stuffed the skin into it. Maybe he'd be able to work with this later. Until then, he'd better hold onto it, just in case he got lost or couldn't come back here.

The leonir den had two pathways leading out of it, the way that he had come from, which led through a small maze that he had encountered the giant rat in and back to the room with scrolls and clothes, and towards the den of the Idex.

The other direction, however, seemed to head further into the dungeon. Max wasn't sure that he wanted to explore further down. It seemed intuitive to him that the more that he went down-the further from the entrance of the dungeon he went. That is, if there even was an entrance to the dungeon.

The map that he had found was severely incomplete, and in many spaces the tunnels just trailed to the edge of the paper and didn't continue. Max wished that he had found a bigger map, but he supposed that there might be others in other rooms around the dungeon.

What the map _did_ show, however, was that going upwards in the dungeon meant that he would be walking right into one of two groups- the demons (Which he definitely didn't want to encounter for as long as he could), and the Ants.

Max wasn't sure why ants was capitalized on the map, but he figured that they must be a real danger in the dungeon if they were noted, especially since he had seen the Idex, and had only barely taken down the leonir with pure luck.

If the Ants were anything like ants on his planet, he didn't want to antagonize them, especially if they had a hive mind. That could get him swarmed. He certainly didn't want that to happen.

So Max made up his mind. The only way forward was to delve further down into the dungeon. And if that meant that eventually he would have to encounter a Hydra, then well. At that point he'd rather just come back and risk it with the Ants.

But first things first, this area that he had slept in wasn't safe. He needed to clear the surrounding area of any and all monsters if he wanted to rest easy. Max figured that if he spent a couple of hours doing just that, then he could return here as a sort of safe zone without having to worry about getting attacked in the middle of the night.

Right as he was about to pack up his things and head out, his stomach rumbled, and frowned. Eating was not something that he had been thinking of. He certainly needed to leave some easy to kill monsters alive, just in case he needed to go hunting for food in the future. In the meanwhile…

A half an hour later and some more leonir meat cooked and eaten, and Max was headed back towards the maze. It would be the first thing that he set about trying to clear out, and hopefully he could explore most of it before the end of the day.

Within minutes of stepping into the maze like area, he was beset upon by a swarm of bats. They bit at his arms and legs, and he definitely felt his energy sap at the heavy hits. He took his sword in his hand and swung at the swarm, many of which had not yet gotten at him yet.

His sword struck true, and he cut a few down within seconds. The rest of the bats were more wary of him now, but came at him again. This time some hung back, however, so their attacks weren't quite as strong as when they attacked him the first time.

He was at half strength already, and he cursed his luck. He could fight against a leonir on pure luck and take it down without a scratch, but brought low by a horde of bats? He didn't think so. He swung up and killed a few more bats, and there was little more than a third of the original swarm left flapping around.

They swooped down once more on him, but this time he wasn't having any of that shit. He rolled right under the bats and struck out with his blade as he came out of the somersault, but missed the remaining bats.

That was the trouble of taking down a few of them already, Max mused to himself as he readied himself for them coming once more. He watched as they flew in the air, and his eyes narrowed as he found a small pattern in their attacks. The swarm always tended to attack as a group, and after flying away would disperse for a few precious moments so as to minimize their losses to his sword swings.

But that just meant that he needed to strike them as they attacked him. He waited for the swarm to gather again, and ducked under the swarm as they dove on him again, barely able to retaliate. Shit, it was hard to swing a sword while dodging attacks!

They came down on him once more and tore at him bare arms, and he lashed out with his blade again, this time surprising himself as his broadsword cut through the bats as they left. There were only two left, and he went after them this time, not giving them time to regroup before he cut them out of the air.

He was seriously hurt, though, and needed the healing waters of that fountain, otherwise he was sure that he'd be bleeding all over the place. It was lucky that he was so close to the lion's den, as it were.

He cleaned himself up and after a little bit his body was healed again. That magic fountain was going to be his saving grace, and as soon as he found bottles, he was going to try and bring at least a little bit of it's healing magic with him into the dungeon.

He made his way back into the maze, and delved a little bit further in this time. He knew, by the map, that this way led to a dead end. But he had to make sure that it was clear of monsters.

And lo and behold, at the dead end, Max saw thick webs, trailing from the ceiling to the ground. He was on alert, and found the spider before it saw him. He recognized it as a giant version of earth's wolf spider, and made an attack on it before it could retaliate.

He was a bit unlucky with his strike, since while he had never realistically used a sword before, it swerved a bit in midair and cut at the spider's legs, lopping a few of them off.

At least he had managed to hit the spider. And without the cutting off of some of its legs, Max was certain that the beast would have been able to strike him back. As it was, when it lunged for him, it swerved way off to the side, and he was able to swing out at it as it passed him by.

He was even more unlucky with this strike, as he barely managed to clip the spider's spinneret before it spun back on him. This time it managed to strike at him, biting his ankle, and Max could feel a little bit of venom enter into his ankle, inhibiting his movement slightly.

He swung down at the spider while it was still attached to his leg, and cut neatly through it's abdomen with his blade. The spider clung on to his leg for a moment, before releasing its hold on him.

Max tried to move, and found that it was hard to walk on his leg for a minute or two, before the venom seemed to fade from his system, the paralyzing agent in it having seemingly faded away. That was useful information, that the spiders around here didn't have deadly venoms. At least not the giant wolf spiders.

Max tore through the webbing with his sword, making certain that there were no hidden egg sacs before returning to camp once more. He really needed to see about getting some sort of jars or bottles to hold the healing water in, as it was time consuming to keep returning to the fountain every time that he got hurt.

After a few hours of exploring and killing some more minor beasts in the maze, he finally retired to camp, and opened the bag of holding to get out the magic tome. He took it out, but also considered something, and a stroke of genius seemed to take hold of him.

He had a lion's hide from the leonir, and back when he had been in boy scouts, he had something called a camelbak backpack, which was a portable water holder. If he had sufficient enough time, he could maybe make one out of leather. It wouldn't take too much effort, all he had to do was get some sewing supplies to tie it all together.

Which, now that he thought of it, there had been some sewing supplies in the closet of that first room that he had come across. All he had to do was make the hour's journey through the maze to go and get the materials, and he'd be able to sew the leather together.

That is, presuming that he could even make leather with the leonir hide. He tried to remember the process of tanning hides and removing fur, but didn't remember much after the skinning process.

So instead of reading a book on magic, and instead of going back to the room to get sewing supplies, Max sat himself down by the fire and took out his knife and the hide.

For the next few hours, he made small gains on it, slowly cutting the fur off of a stretch of the hide, and finally came up with something that he was proud of. It wasn't perfect, but he couldn't exactly remember the next step in the process. He thought it had something to do with getting the skin wet and then drying it, letting the hide shrink to size.

He definitely wasn't an expert, and made sure to feed himself once the skin was drying by the fireside. Today had been an exhausting day. Maybe tomorrow he'd go back to that room and get the supplies he needed, and then with a little bit of work, he'd have a leather camelbak backpack to carry around the magic water in.

He fell asleep quickly, barely hearing the voice as it told him that he had levelled up again.

[Warrior Level 4!]

[Skill - Sword Proficiency Obtained!]

[Survivor Level 3!]

[Skill - Leatherworking Obtained!]


	4. Chapter 4

When Max woke up on the fourth day, he took some time to gather his thoughts. It was incredibly easy to level up, or at least it was right now. He wondered if there was some sort of way that allowed him to change his classes later on, or if he was stuck with warrior and survivor for the rest of his time here in this world.

If the latter was the case, then he definitely wanted to be careful about what classes that he obtained. If he were to venture a guess, he would assume that there was some sort of invisible level cap, probably around 100 or so. This world definitely didn't work off of Dungeons and Dragons rules, since he had been leveling up super fast so far in both of his classes.

That left a higher level limit than 20, anyways. He had nothing else to base it on, but for now he figured level 100 was the maximum level he could reach. And if that was the case, and classes were cumulative, then he needed to be careful about what he decided to specialize in.

When he had played Dungeons and Dragons, his favorite classes to play as were Barbarian and Bard. Max definitely didn't have any musical instruments, and while he liked his singing voice well enough, he wasn't about to be drawing the attention of every monster in the dungeon.

Barbarian also seemed like a bad idea to try and get the class of-raging meant that your AC was lowered, and Max didn't want to have to take more hits than he needed.

In fact, he was specifically trying to raise his dexterity so as to avoid attacks, right? A thought flitted through his mind. When he had played Pathfinder, a variant of D&D, he had played as a Swashbuckler, a mix of the Fighter and Gunslinger classes.

Their main shtick was being about to dodge around enemies and being able to parry enemy's attacks, as well as the finesse to riposte afterwards. That sounded like something he should attempt to do.

Although… He looked down at his broadsword. It wasn't exactly a finesse weapon, if he remembered correctly. He'd need to make due with it for now, but if he wanted to gain levels as a Swashbuckler, he'd need to learn how to parry the attacks with it, and he wasn't sure how long it would hold in it's rusted state. He'd need to find a new weapon, and soon.

With all of these thoughts finalizing in his head, his mind was made up. He'd try and become a [Swashbuckler], and he needed a new weapon. That meant that he needed to explore more. Actually, now that he thought of it… There had always been some treasure in the domains of the large beasts. And if the Idex was well and truly dead, that meant that he should go back and see if there was anything back there that he could use.

He fed himself breakfast, and looked suspiciously at the leonir body that was lying on the ground. It should have been rotting already, and Max wasn't sure why it was still good to eat. Regardless, he was running out of meat on it, so he was going to need something new soon if he wanted to keep himself fed.

He took a look at it's antlers, and after a minute, broke them off and stuffed them in his bag of holding. Maybe he could use them as a makeshift weapon in the event that his sword broke, or better yet he could throw them on the ground behind him as he ran from something and have them step on the antlers and maybe it would give him time to run.

He traversed the maze once more, and this time a giant bat swooped down on his head out of the darkness. It looked way bigger than the bats that he had killed yesterday, but it was just one bat, so he wasn't as worried about it as them. It bit his arm, and flew off before he could strike back at it.

Ok, scratch that, this thing clearly knew what it was doing. He waited for it to strike at him again, and tried to catch it in the air with his sword, but to no avail, and it struck him once more and flew off before it could get hit with his counter attack.

He was beginning to understand how it was swooping down on him, though and when it came for him, he swung up with his weapon and cut into the beast. It screeched and flew back up into the air.

This time, he was going to try and knock the bat out of the air when it came for him. That counted as some sort of parry, right?

Clearly the giant bat wasn't doing super well as it tried to get the drop on him again, but almost as if his hands were guided by something more intelligent than him, he swung the sword with great ease and cut the beast down to the ground, heavily damaging it. Before it could fly up into the air again, he struck at it, and clipped one of its wings.

It was having trouble from all the hits that Max had dealt to it, and it's flying had become erratic. Monsters in this dungeon apparently didn't have a sense of self preservation though, as it came for him once more. He cut at it as it tried to bite at him again, and while his cut was shallow, it didn't get to bite him.

He went on the offensive and chased it as it flew back up into the air, and took a leap off of some crates that lines the side of the dungeon, swinging as hard as he could at the giant bat. He caught it in the back, and it fell to the ground in a bundle of skin and bones.

THe fight was over, and had it not been for the few hits at the beginning of the engagement, he would have been fine. He was getting better at this whole fighting monsters thing. He went back briefly to heal himself, before going back into the maze.

This time he was barely hindered. There were a couple of monsters here and there, a couple of normal sized rats that tried to fight him, some big but not quite giant spiders, and something that looked like a mudkip from Pokemon. He wasn't taking very many hits, and he was grateful that on his way towards the fountain in the first place, that he hadn't fought anything other than a giant rat.

He finally found his way back to that first room that he had hidden in, and looked about it. It looked untouched since he had last been here, with the bed and desk being in the same places he had dragged them too. He went to the closet. Where was - aha!

He took the small sewing set that he had seen earlier in his journey and put them into his bag of holding. That was one mission objective down, now he needed a new weapon.

He made his way further up the tunnel system, where the name Idex had been marked on his map. He paused for a moment, considering something. What if the thing that he had seen, that huge tentacles insect, _wasn't_ the Idex, but rather something that had taken up residence in the area since whoever had made the map had moved on?

It was possible, and Max was going to be wary as he entered into the area where he had seen the bug like creature. He entered the area cautiously, and was disgusted to find out that the thing had laid eggs everywhere. He set about smashing the eggs, he wasn't about to deal with fighting a shit ton of whatever that thing was later on, that would be asking for trouble.

He had just finished smashing the last of the eggs when he heard a screech, and looked around.

There, at the other end of the room and leading further upwards into the dungeon, was a smaller version of the beast that had chased him at the onset of his adventure. He quickly took a glance at it's spider like legs and knew that the leonir's antlers would not slow this thing down as makeshift caltrops.

The thing let out a frosty breathe attack, but Max dodged out of the way of the chilled air. He had seen what getting frozen had done to a being stronger than he was, and definitely didn't want to get caught in it.

It chittered towards him, and lashed out with one of its tentacles. He swiped at it with his sword, intending to just attempt to parry it when He sliced cleanly through the tentacle, cutting it off at the halfway point.

That had been a stroke of luck. He pressed his advantage though, and with a twirl of his weapon, he cut at the other tentacle that was coming for him. So much for his showmanship, though, because the time that it took him to twirl his weapon left him open to the second attack, and it slammed him into a wall.

He wasn't down yet, the impact had hurt barely more than the giant bat's bites earlier. He could still keep going. He let the beast attack him with its tentacle again and dodged underneath, before slicing at the second tentacle, cutting that one off too.

With the majority of its weapons gone, the bug like creature blasted him point blank range with its freezing breath, and he was caught in it. Cold chilled him to his core, and he saw the six mandibles dropping raising into the air. He knew that if those touched him, he might as well be a goner.

Adrenaline pumped through his veins, even chilled as they were, and with a burst of strength that surprised even him, he broke the ice that had formed around him and thrust his sword into the mouth of the beast as it drew closer to it.

The creature surely hadn't been expecting this, and as his sword cut deep into the insectile monsters head, he saw the light leave its eyes. He was incredibly lucky that adrenaline boosts in time of danger was a thing, or else he would be dead.

He took a moment to look around the room, looking for treasure underneath all of the spider eggs that he had smashed, and was surprised to find a long wooden box. He opened it, and was surprised to find a pristine rapier sheathed inside of it, as well as some oils. He presumed the oil was used as a type of maintenance for the blade, to keep it from rusting. That would be useful.

He took out the rapier and examined the blade. It was made of a glittery surface, and Max wasn't sure what metal it was made out of, perhaps some kind of metal that exists in this world but not in his own? Regardless, He wouldn't be using the rusted broadsword anymore, this thing was much nicer, and also sharper. He assumed that he'd be doing more damage with the rapier.

Plus, he had gained a skill yesterday, [Sword Proficiency]. He assumed that meant that he was at least a little bit capable with all types of swords, and gave the rapier a few swings and stabs. Oh yeah, this thing was a hell of a lot more balanced than the broadsword had been, and it was definitely going to be hurting monsters. He could already tell that he'd be better at fighting with this thing.

He took one last look around the room, before evaluating his next move. He could try and travel further up in the dungeon, and maybe run into some other water source. Or he could return to the leonir's den and continue working with leather. That seemed like the best option to him.

He attached the rapier's sheath to his belt and set on going back to camp. He was looking forward to the easy travel back when he came across a shambling mass of bones and flesh. What the hell was this? It looked like some sort of undead, but not any kind that he had ever seen before. It was roughly the size of half of him, so he figured that he could take it on.

With his newfound rapier, he cut and stabbed at the shambling mass of bones and flesh. It didn't make any attacks against him, but he didn't want to risk this thing forming into an actual undead construct or something. Eventually, after a minute or two of tearing at it, it gave a shudder and collapsed to the ground, pieces of it going everywhere along the ground.

Well, that was uneventful, even with the undead thing existing in the first place. Maybe he should be on the lookout for more, that thing reminded him of a small version of the Rotten from Dark Souls 2, and he was not looking forward to fighting something that big yet.

After traversing the maze once more, he found himself back at his camp. He lit a fire and made himself food, eating the rest of the leonir meat. He really needed to hunt for some more meat soon, or perhaps he could try and go to the gardens that he had seen on the map previously.

He worked with the leather as he ate, and used what little skills he had in sewing to sew together two sides of the leather that he had made.

Overall, he was happy with the results of his effort. While it wasn't perfect, it would certainly work. Max took it over to the fountain and filled it up with the magical water. He took a strip of leather and used it to tie off the top of the pouch, effectively meaning that no water would spill.

Nice. He had something that looked kinda like an organ of some sort, but it effectively carried a gallon or two of the magical water. That should be enough for his daytime adventures into the rest of the dungeon. Now all he needed was more food, and that would come tomorrow. But for now, he'd sleep.

[Warrior level 5!]


	5. Chapter 5

Max was disappointed that he hadn't gained any skills from levelling up last night, but he supposed that he can't always gain skills from levelling. After all, the first time that he had levelled, he had gained 4 levels and only 3 skills, so it made sense that he wasn't going to gain a skill every level.

It was still a bummer. It also beget the question, how were skills chosen? Did he just randomly meet the requirements for them? He had gained [Animal Skinning] after doing it once, but he hadn't gotten a skill like [Sneak Attack] from when he killed his first monster.

Max considered himself of at least some intelligence, and yet he still didn't understand it that well. He had a couple of theories, but without sufficient evidence to back them up, all he had were hypotheses. But that didn't mean that he couldn't test them out. Today, he was going to attempt to parry any and all attacks coming at him, and see if he got a parry ability.

That would have to take the backburner though, since he was out of food. His options were: Try and hunt down some monsters that he could eat, or attempt to go further into the dungeon and reach the gardens. Hopefully the elephant like monster which was drawn on his map was friendly, but considering the rest of the dungeon so far, that seemed incredibly unlikely.

He figured that trying to make his way to the gardens was a worthwhile investment. Worst case scenario, he got hurt on his way down there, and he used some of his water supply to heal himself.

And so, even though he was hungry still, Max made his way further down into the dungeon.

The direction that wasn't the maze was a little bit more difficult to navigate, mostly because it wasn't detailed on the map. There were twists and turns, and eventually Max found himself on a dead end. He sighed, and turned back the way he had come from when he realized that he was trapped.

Two skeletons had snuck up behind him, and glowered at him in the gloom of the tunnels, their dark eye sockets filling him with dread. Shit. If there was anything that he knew from D&D and Pathfinder, it was that piercing weapons weren't good against skeletons. They each clung to a shortsword, and Max was glad that they didn't have anything more dangerous.

He let out another sigh, before charging the skeletons, giving them no time to lash out at him, and stabbed with his rapier. He got lucky, and broke a hole through one of the skeletons' skulls.

The other one attacked him with its sword, and Max felt the sword dig into his arm a bit. Just a flesh wound, right? Heh.

The skeleton that he had struck first made to attack him, and Max attempted to parry it. Attempted being the operative word here, he barely had enough time to bring up his rapier to block the blow. That would've hit him.

But now, with his sword entangled with the skeleton's, he didn't have a way to fight back. So he shoved the skeleton away from him, pushing it into the wall, before he turned to the other one which was moving to attack him again.

This time, he was able to parry the attack, and pressed the advantage. If he wanted to be a [Swashbuckler], then he needed to learn how to parry _and_ riposte. His blade struck true, and he pierced a hole through the skeleton's sternum.

The first skeleton had picked itself off of the floor, however, and made to attack him. He still had his sword stuck inside the second skeleton, but he managed to dodge out of the way of the skeleton's attack, just barely. Max freed his rapier from the skeleton and lashed out at the one that had just attacked him.

This time, he wasn't so lucky, even with his [Sword Proficiency], and his rapier poked into a spot between the skeleton's ribs, before he pulled it out. No damage there.

The second skeleton, the one with a hole in it's chest, gave a swing at him, which he managed to parry again. This was getting a little bit easier the more that he practiced! He riposted again, and struck at the skeleton's skull, unhinging its jaw.

Both of the skeletons were moving a little sluggish now, and even though they didn't give any indicators of bleeding or being in pain, Max knew that he had the upper hand.

He struck out at the second skeleton, having made more hits on it than the other one, but missed anything vital. The first skeleton attacked him, and it missed with it's attack as well, he was able to dodge out of the way at the last moment.

The second skeleton attacked him, and he made to parry its attack once more. With how much damage that he had done to it, it was almost pitiable how easy it was to parry the attack, and made to riposte.

Even though the riposte hit, it barely broke one of the skeleton's ribs, and it was still standing. He struck out at it again, and this time his rapier struck true, cleaving straight through the skeleton's spine at its neck. The magic holding the skeleton together faded, and bones fell to the ground.

The remaining skeleton, the one that he had attacked first, swung down at Max, but he caught the shortsword on his blade again before it could hurt him. This was getting fun. He pushed the skeleton off of him again and struck out with his rapier, but barely hit the skeleton.

The skeleton made to attack him again, and Max smiled as he deftly maneuvered the shortsword away from him and struck back, hitting the skeleton in the arm, destroying it's arm in the process.

The skeleton picked up the shortsword in its left hand, and swung at Max, but it clearly wasn't as strong using its left hand as it was with its right, since it didn't even touch him.

The young man struck out with his blade, and missed his own attack. This time, when the skeleton made to attack him, however, he was able to make one last parry before shoving his rapier straight through the skeleton's chest, making it die like it's comrade.

Max smiled at his newfound abilities, before a wave of exhaustion hit him, and he dropped his rapier to the ground.

Holy shit, his arms were _tired_. He felt as though he just rock climbed up a small cliff or something, the strain in his arms burning at him.

He had been relatively fit, of course, prior to coming to this world (At least, he assumed that he was in another world). But actively using his arms to do something new, not just once, but five times, and that was _after _he had gotten hit with an enemy attack on his sword arm.

Max took out the bag of water and poured a little bit on his arm, watching the magic heal it up, before he took a swig to quench his thirst. His arms still ached a bit, even with the healing magic knitting the wound together, and he decided to catch his breath for a second.

He didn't want to run into anything else while he was exhausted, right? That seemed like a smart idea, the more that he explored, the more likely it was that he encountered another enemy. While the monsters in this dungeon _did_ move about, they were less likely to run into him if he remained still for a bit.

He decided that unless he fought more enemies with weapons, he was just going to try and focus on dodging enemies attacks for the rest of the day, to give his arms a rest from all of the parrying that he had done. He just wasn't used to it yet.

After resting for about a half an hour, Max decided that he had spent long enough in one area. He journeyed further into the dungeon once more, and came into a room with a large treasure chest on a raised floor. Max was instantly suspicious of the room, and surveyed it. Aside from the treasure chest, there were a few statues lying about the room, some of which were destroyed.

There were tapestries on the walls, depicting a large beast. Whatever this thing was, it didn't exactly have animal like traits that Max could use to describe it. But the tapestries clearly made it look big, and it looked like the embroidery was actually a large map, which held this monster at the bottom. It looked like this was the end level boss of the dungeon, although Max wasn't sure if he was capable enough to take it down by himself.

He was, however, going to take these maps, since they revealed more of the dungeon than he currently had. He would have to examine them later. He took out his knife and cut them off of the wall, before shoving them into his bag of holding.

He turned back towards the room. The chest sat in the middle of the room, untouched, where some of the statues were broken on the floor, leaving just one standing.

He leaned down and touched the statues that were on the ground. Something was… off. There were bloodstains on the ground, ones that were old. From long ago. And yet, he didn't see any bodies anywhere. The statues that were broken also seemed to be scattered about from their pedestals, almost as if someone had moved them and broken them on purpose…

Max's eyes widened as he realised what had happened here. He looked surreptitiously at the remaining statue.

Or should he say, the remaining gargoyle?

On earth, Gargoyles were protectors, but in their mythical origins, they were based off of dragons, which had been captured or beheaded and used to defend churches. In a great many of games, Gargoyles would only come to life and attack once you've triggered them, that usually meant getting close enough to them, or stepping into their line of sight.

Here though, Max was sure that the Gargoyle could see him. And he knew, without a doubt in his mind, that it would not simply allow him to walk away with his life.

He couldn't do anything but laugh.

"It seems that i've seen right through you, oh deceiver of man. Show me your true colors and face me in honor, and we'll settle this squarely, shall we?"

The statue betrayed nothing of its nature, and Max walked up to it, extremely wary. He knew that this thing would attempt to get a surprise attack on him, but if it were going to play this game, that of the statue, then it had another thing coming.

"So be it, dear Gargoyle. I have nothing but the greatest respect for you and yours, of course. But let it be known that Maxwell Caiden does not back down from his challenges, and he will turn you to dust, just like your brethren before you."

This got the Gargoyle to move. In a flash, it lunged at Max, clearly attempting to catch him by surprise.

But Max was not to be deterred. He knew that the beast was going to jump on him at any moment, especially considering the proximity to the beast that he had placed himself in. He sidestepped out of the way of the lunge, and struck out at the beast as it passed him by.

He was surprised when his weapon cut right into the stone creature's flesh, did he have a magical rapier? It hadn't shown any magical properties up until now! He didn't have time to contemplate the question though, since the beast let out a screech and attacked him again, this time swinging at him with its claws, and also attempting to bite him.

Max wasn't sure what it was, but his little speech from before the fight had certainly given him a boost to his confidence. He remembered his roleplaying days, and thought to himself, 'Now this is what being a Swashbuckler is about!', as he dodged around the stone beast's attacks with ease.

He jabbed again with his rapier, and though his cut wasn't as deep as his first one, it once more destroyed a bit of the stone that the creature was made of. The Gargoyle wasn't happy about that, and tried to bite him again, but he sidestepped it once more, but then realized that put him right in the path of it's claws.

The claws cut at his stomach, and while they hadn't been very deep, he knew that he couldn't take very many attacks like that at all. This thing was significantly stronger than every other enemy that he had faced until now. His life was on the line, and he knew that even though he had told himself earlier that he wouldn't, he would have to attempt to parry this things attacks if he couldn't dodge in time.

He took the hit in stride though, as any aspiring [Swashbuckler] should. He gave a wry smile, and said, "Your claws hurt less than my mother's paddle. Come, is that the worst that you can do?"

He struck out with his weapon, his words giving him a certain amount of confidence that he knew that he would not have had three days ago, when he first ran from the Idex. He was a [Warrior], and he was going to show this Gargoyle what he could do.

His blade pierced right through the Gargoyle's left shoulder, and it howled in pain, clutching it's arm where it had been stabbed. It tried to grab him, but he rolled under the creature's legs and brought his rapier up and into its back.

The Gargoyle wasn't finished yet, nor did it look like it was even close to its last legs, even with all of the damage that he had dealt to this thing.

It spun, and tried to swipe at him once more, and Max deftly avoided the stone beast's attack once more, before it tried to bite him. This time, the beast caught him unawares, and he barely had time to move before it tore a small chunk of flesh off of his left arm.

He was lucky that the wound was shallow, but he knew that he couldn't let the beast get these types of attacks off on him like that. He lashed out with his own weapon, and drove it through the left arm, close enough to the shoulder that it completely dislodged and crumpled to the ground!

At this point, he had to stop letting luck claim all the credit: he was getting skilled at doing this, although he had to admit that without this whole levelling system he'd probably have died by now.

The creature let out a roar, and made to bite him. Without a thought, he sidestepped the bite, but he saw the arm that was poised to attack him once he dodged, and lashed out with his weapon. He not only caught the claw that had been coming for him, but his rapier was perfectly aligned with the creature, and with a burst of strength and power, he drove the rapier up the middle of the Gargoyle's remaining arm, destroying it a terrible display of swordplay.

The Gargoyle was stunned. Nothing could have prepared it for this turn of events. The luck involved, the sheer power behind the human's attack. This was supposed to be an easy fight against a puny adventurer.

In Max's mind, he recognized what had happened as nothing short of a miracle. If he had been playing D&D, he rationalized what had just happened as him getting a crit on the Gargoyle. But all he knew was that he had overcome the main challenge of this encounter.

"If you flee now, Gargoyle, know that I am merciful. I will not give chase nor will I cut you down. But should you attack me once more, I will tear what remains of your body to pieces, of this you have my solemn oath."

Max's words spurred the creature into action, and it lunged for him once more. He sidestepped one last time, but left his sword in position to stab the creature through the chest as it flew into the spot where he had been just a moment before. His rapier cut deep, and with a last howl, the gargoyle began to break, piece by piece, until all that was left of it was a snarling face on the ground.

"What a pity. Just know that I hold you with respect in my eyes."

Max took a glance around the room. The battle had lasted but a couple of minutes, and yet, he felt strong, confident, and almost cocky. He lost his swagger as he looked at the chest though, and once more at the bloodstained floor.

How many adventurers had died so that there would only be one remaining Gargoyle for him to fight? How would he fare next time, when he might be fighting something even stronger? Hordes of monsters? The elephant beast?

It was going to be a rough journey for him, that much could be said for sure. He took out his waterskin, and poured water over his wounds. He was running low on water, with all the healing that he had needed so far, mixed with his thirst. He doubted that he'd be able to heal himself any more, especially if he wanted to conserve his water for hydration purposes.

A pity, but he's have to make due. He looked once more at the chest and then narrowed his eyes. A trap had clearly already dealt with in this room, but he was too smart to think that the danger was truly gone until he had tested the treasure chest.

And so he approached the chest, raised up on the dais as it was, and struck out at the chest with his rapier. It bounced off of the chest with not even a scratch to the wood. Well, that was interesting, but it hadn't triggered the chest attacking him at all either. So…

He opened the chest, and felt relief flow through him at the sight. Finally, some armor! In the chest was some simple black leather armor, complete with leather shin guards, a leather vest, and some studded leather bracers. This would significantly help him out in the long run.

He quickly set about putting the armor on, before looking himself over. He couldn't exactly see himself, since he didn't have a mirror, but he imagined that he looked super weird right now, with the leather vest covering his cut t-shirt, and shin guards on his cloth black pants. It could be worse, but at least now his bare arms had something to protect them too.

He looked back into the chest and saw some other things. A couple of small things, like another couple of vials of oil, clearly labelled as such, as well as a long rope. Both of those things went into his bag of holding. He was beginning to wonder just how much it could carry, since he had at least a couple of pounds worth of miscellaneous things in it already.

He'd just have to wait and find out when it dropped everything on the ground at his feet for trying to fit too much stuff into it. But for now, that last of his attention was on the small pile of gemstones in the chest. There was a handful of different gems, one which he recognized as turquoise, but he couldn't identify the rest of them. They could be useful if he ever managed to make his way out of here, perhaps as a means of monetary exchange.

There was nothing else in the chest, but he felt as though he had gotten enough, considering that most of the work had been done before he had even got here.

It was later in the day, but he wasn't about to give up just yet. He still had to make it to the gardens, and he had a feeling that he was getting close.

Soon he'd be able to see this elephant like creature for himself, and hopefully it would allow him to eat in the garden in peace.


	6. Chapter 6

Max took a look at the maps that he had, and back at the dead end. He was certain that this path was supposed to lead towards the gardens. And yet, all he saw were stone walls and torches. Maybe there was a hidden door?

He picked up the torches one by one, but no hidden door revealed itself. That was extremely frustrating. He had spent all day navigating the dungeon just to get here, and all he was left with was a dead end. He hit his hand on the stone wall, and his ears perked up. That wasn't the sound of a solid wall.

He hit the wall again, and strained his ears. No, he was certain, this wall was thin, almost as if it had been made to hide the path ahead. He was about to hit the wall a third time, when Eyes opened, and squinted angrily at him.

Oh shit. This was just like Nioh, with it's umm, whatever they were called. Wall mimics… Nuri-kabe? Nurikabe. That was it. They were a type of yokai in Japanese folklore that enjoyed misguiding travellers. In the game, they weren't visible typically unless you attacked them. Alternatively, you could try and perform a gesture in order to make them amiable to you, which would make them calm down and disappear.

Max doubted that he'd be getting much further unless he attacked this thing. From his memories of the game, Nurikabe were slow, and had very telegraphed attacks. But this wasn't a video game, and for all he knew, it could be extremely fast.

The best strategy was to move in, attack, and back off before it attacked with its arms, which it either had and hadn't revealed to him, or didn't have, or if it didn't attack with its arms, it could just slam down onto him, dealing massive damage, and might even just kill him on the spot.

That was a run on thought. Either way, he needed to decide if he was going to attack this thing. The first thing that he did was calculate the distance between the floor and the ceiling. Probably about eight feet tall. That meant that if he was going to attack this thing, that he'd have to strike at it and run back eight feet in case it slammed into the ground.

Not the kind of scenario he had wanted. But what else was he going to do? He had already drank all of his water, and it would take hours to navigate his way back to the fountain. He needed food, and the only way forward was through this creature, get to the gardens, and eat and drink from a water source that kept the plants alive.

No, he had to try and take this thing down. But first, he figured it wouldn't hurt to try and appeal to the Nurikabe through gestures, like he had in Nioh.

In the game, you had two attempts to appease the wall creature. You could make an aggressive move, a neutral one, or a positive gesture. If you failed twice, the wall monster would instantly attack.

And so, Max looked at the beast. It was still glaring at him for punching it a couple of times, clearly already angered a little bit. In his mind, the best thing to do to a wronged beast would be to apologize to it. He had no idea if it would work, since this beast was in a world other than Earth, but Yokai typically adhered to Japanese traditions of honor, right?

Max got onto his hands and knees, and prostrated before the wall mimic.

"Oh great Nurikabe, please accept the humble apologies from this waylaid adventurer. I cannot express enough how sorry I am for not realizing that you existed simply to cause confusion and to misguide me. Thank you for revealing yourself, and I hope you will find it within yourself to forgive me of my transgressions."

The Nurikabe blinked its eyes, and squinted at Max for a couple of moments, before it grew angry. Clearly that hadn't been what it had wanted to hear. Max had mere milliseconds to dodge as the Nurikabe revealed it's true form, and lashed out at him.

It had no legs, as it was rooted to the ground where it had chosen to live. It had long arms that were about six feet long each, and had four glowing red eyes, clearly angered by him. So it ended up being a fight regardless, a pity.

Still, Max was interested in how the fight would go. In the game, Nurikabe were veritable tanks, barely taking any damage from attacks, and it typically took a lot of work to take them down. But on the other hand, his rapier had recently been able to wound a Gargoyle, with great efficacy. He knew that Gargoyles were made of stone, so perhaps his rapier was good against rock based monsters?

It was a small hypothesis in his head, but he rolled with it. He didn't remember what metal was good against stone constructs and what not, but knew that his rapier didn't seem to be made of normal steel, as it had a light green sheen to it.

Max was shaken out of his reverie when another attack caught him in the side. Shit! He had totally spaced out there for a moment. He couldn't do that ever again.

His left side hurt from the heavy hit, but he shrugged it off. He'd have to deal with that later. He jabbed at the wall monster, but another attack from it's arms caused him to back off before he could hit it. This thing was giving him no chance to fight it!

He watched the thing, and took a single step forward, baiting the creature to lash out with its arms once more. When the beast did so, he took the moment that the arm got close to him to stab at it. He barely chipped the arm, but knew that he had at least had an easy time breaking off a piece of the rock. That confirmed his theory of his weapon, at least.

The Nurikabe didn't like that he had baited an attack, and drew itself to its full height, before slamming into the ground. Luckily, Max had barely registered what it was doing before it had done so, and had dodged in the nick of time. He took this moment to lash out at the top of the beast as it rose again from the ground, and his attack struck true.

His rapier cut through the stone like butter, and he had a feeling that the wall mimic would have roared at him had it a mouth. Alas, no sounds came from it, but it's attacks got even more ferocious, and it swung out at him with both arms at once.

He saw an opening in the creature's attacks, and rolled underneath the arms as they came for him, before striking at one of the creature's four eyes. His rapier bit deep into the Nurikabe, and its other eyes winced in pain. Max pressed his advantage and struck out at one of the other eyes, but failed to hit it as the Nurikabe leaned back, out of reach.

Max took this moment of reprieve to jump back, and just in time, as arms slammed right into the spot that he had just been.

Eventually, one of them would tire. And logically speaking, Max was in a far worse position, considering that he had exhausted his arms earlier that day. His only saving grace was that nothing had attacked him since the Gargoyle, which meant that all of his wounds until now were gone. Max didn't know how long a Nurikabe could keep attacking, but he knew that he couldn't last for much longer, especially not in his food deprived state.

The wall mimic was giving him no quarter, and slammed into the ground once more. This time, Max used all of his daring to jump onto the back of the monster, and he was effectively behind it as it rose up from the ground.

In Nioh, if you managed to go behind a Nurikabe, you could see a magic tag that held the beast together. In this world, there was no magical tag, but that didn't mean that the beast could turn around so easily.

Max stabbed the creature in the back once, and ripped his rapier out of it once more, leaving a hoel right through the beast. It tried to turn, but it was awkward and slow moving. The young man stabbed again, this time close enough to the first hole that it crumpled a larger portion of the stone wall. The beast's arms tried to find him, but as anybody knows, trying to grab something on your back was hard.

Max shoved his arm through the Nurikabe, through the large hole that he had just opened up, and with this newfound leverage and hold on the beast, he struck one last time through the beast with his rapier, with all the force he could muster.

The wall trembled, and crumpled into smaller rocks. Max fell to his knees, and caught his breath. That had been rough. Now for the hardest challenge of the day, seeing if this Elephant would allow him to eat something.

He stood up and made his way further down the tunnel. He rounded a corner, and came face to face with the garden.

Although, to call it a garden would be like calling a lake a puddle. The room was spacious, the ceiling reaching high, probably about 30 feet up. There were trees and shrubs, and large bushels of fruits all about. A large pool of water lay in the middle of the cavern, feeding the surrounding plant life.

Strange and exotic plants that Max had never seen before grew from the walls, and he could see giant mushrooms with heads the size of bicycle tires looming.

From the walls hung large glowing gemstones. They came out from the walls and illuminated the space with hues of green, red, and blue. They lit up the area so well that Max didn't even need a torch as he entered the garden, and he put out the fire that he had been wielding up until this point. If he needed to light another torch as he left, then he would at that point.

He couldn't see the Elephant roaming, but it very well could be somewhere in this underground jungle. That suited him just fine, he would have some time to eat some of the fruits that were here before it revealed itself. Hopefully he'd have enough time to pack some food for the journey back to his camp before he had to leave, as he definitely didn't want to tussle with the Elephant today, that was, if it was aggressive towards him.

He didn't really know what Elephants liked to eat, but he faintly recalled that they competed with Rhinos for food resources in the deserts and plains, so he didn't exactly want to risk it thinking that he was stealing its food. Although, with how much there was here, he was sure that he could take enough to last him a week and it wouldn't be a huge loss.

He set about looking for fruits that he knew about. There were strawberries, tomatoes, and pears. He knew about those ones, and so he made sure to put those in his bag of holding. He climbed up a tree and plucked a few apples that he saw, and found a few peaches as well.

He had been here for nearly an hour, collecting various foodstuffs, and he hadn't seen hide nor tail of the Elephant. Maybe it was out for a romp in the dungeon? It could also be sleeping somewhere, and if that was the case, then Max was lucky.

He took a ten minute break to eat some food, and then went back to gathering food. He needed to pack enough to last him a while, as he wanted to make this round trip as little as possible. He also drank from the water pool, and even tried to see if the water here had healing properties as well.

No dice on that, the wound on his left side remained damaged and bruised. He would have to return to the fountain for healing. That suited him fine, he didn't exactly want to stick around longer than he had to.

With one last check to make sure that he had gathered enough food, he took off back through the tunnels that he had came from. He had just made his way through into a room that he had passed through on his way down when a shape fell from the ceiling and tried to grab ahold of him.

It succeeded, and Max was instantly entangled by a monster that had tentacles for arms.

"What the fuck?" The young man cried out as his head and arms were suddenly enveloped in darkness, dropping his weapon in the process. Luckily, the thing barely had a hold on him, and he was easily able to throw the beast off.

Once he could see again, Max saw the beast that had attacked him floating up towards the ceiling again.

Darklurker. A creature that hung on the ceilings of caves, and disguised themselves as stalactites. They would wait for unaware pedestrians to pass underneath, and drop on them and slowly eat them alive.

It was a good thing that he had gotten lucky with the beast not having a proper hold on him. If he had failed to throw it off of him, he'd probably have been dead within the minute.

But the beast was coming back for more. It dropped down on him, and once more grabbed ahold of him, this time just on his arms. He wrenched them free of the beast and picked up his fallen rapier.

When the beast came a third time, he was ready for it. The beast came back down for a third try, and this time he sidestepped it, and gave it a jab with his rapier.

He had dealt the beast a decent blow, and clearly it hadn't been expecting such an attack. It floated back up to the ceiling, and this time didn't come back down.

But Max wasn't having any of that scaredy-cat bullshit. He took one look up at the ceiling and made a decision. The walls of the tunnel were about five feet apart, and the ceiling was about ten to fifteen feet high. He had seen people run at and then jump off of walls for greater height in parkour videos back on earth, and felt as though he might be able to do the same, considering his background as someone who didn't skip leg day.

He struck a running pose for a moment, before rushing the wall near him, and jumped at it. He had gained decent height with that one jump. With another- His sneakers hit the wall and provided enough traction to gain even greater height than he had thought originally possible.

He wasn't able to hit the darklurker, however, since that was his first time attempting such a maneuver. He was able to recreate the event though, and on the second wall jump, he struck the beast that was trying to keep away from him on the ceiling.

The beast must have been a baby darklurker, considering its size, but that also made fighting it easier. Upon taking this second hit from Max, the squid like monster let out a cry of pain, before falling to the ground.

After ensuring that the beast was dead, and also making sure that there were no more darklurkers around, he cleaned off his rapier, before moving to return to his camp once more. When he finally got there, he took stock of what he had.

He had gathered an assortment of fruits from the garden. Strawberries, grapes, a few apples, some tomatoes, a bunch of pears, and raspberries. He had also managed to find two watermelons, which surprised him, as well as a pineapple.

If he was careful with his meals, he knew that he could make the food last a week. That being said, Max also knew enough about food and healthiness to know that he needed proteins and meat in his diet too. Especially if he was going to be attempting to strengthen his body to fight stronger monsters.

So it fell to him to go hunting. Some things, like the darklurker earlier, wouldn't have much in the way of meat that he could eat. Others, like the skeletons and Nurikabe, didn't have anything that he could eat, so he'd have to invest a decent amount of time into hunting.

Max ate a couple of strawberries, while laying out the rest of his spoils from the day. A couple of tapestries that showed more of the dungeon. He took a couple of minutes to look them over, and blanched. If he was right- holy shit was this dungeon big. He was in one of the offshoots of the dungeon on the right hand side, in an area closest to the top of the dungeon.

And the area that he had on his first map, of which he had barely checked out already, was only a tenth of the size of the whole dungeon. It just _kept_ going down, and Max was certain that the further down one went, the more dangerous it was going to get. And it was already plenty dangerous enough to him, and he was in the area closest to the surface. It kind of reminded Max of the map of Momentos from Persona 5.

At the bottom of the dungeon, sat the boss monster, in all its horrible glory. Max's face went white, just looking at the size of it depicted on the map compared to how big he knew it must be. This thing would be the size of, well maybe the Empire State Building. Godzilla size. What an absolute unit. Whatever this thing was, Max definitely didn't want to tussle with it, at least not at his current level. Maybe once he was, say, level 70?

Max didn't know if he was going to stay alive for that long. And honestly, as interesting as levelling up was, he sure as hell didn't want to stay in this dungeon longer than necessary. At least not as long as he was by himself. If he wanted to be dungeon diving, he needed a party. And adventuring group ready to take on the dungeon with him. He wasn't absolutely positive that there actually was intelligent life on the surface, but he figured that anything was better than fighting his way down into what surely would be his death by himself.

That all being said, there was nothing on the tapestries that mentioned the Ants. There was an area that Max recognized as the demon portion of the dungeon, and that even extended beyond the surface. Max wondered if these ants had somehow accidentally burrowed down deep enough to encounter the dungeon, which would explain why they weren't part of the original maps.

If that was the case, maybe they would understand the dangers of the dungeon, and might even be willing to help him take it on. Worst case scenario, they'd attack him, and he could fight off a few ants, even giant ants, before he had to run back into the dungeon. Best case scenario, they allowed him through their hive back up the surface, and he'd figure out a way to return with a group set on defeating the dungeon.

He looked at the rest of his spoils. Leather studded armor from the Gargoyle room, a long rope, and some more oils. He could use the oils for starting a fire, or so maintain his weapon's integrity. That was important, and Max actually stopped looking over his gear to clean off his rapier of blood and other grime that had accumulated on it over the course of the day. He wasn't about to have a weapon that rusted on him, especially not one that could pierce through rock.

Once he was done, he looked over the rest of his stuff. A couple of gemstones, which he might be able to trade for some money once he got above ground. He had no idea if the people above spoke english, which was unlikely, but hey, one can hope right?

He also had the remaining half of the leonir pelt, as well as it's mane left. Maybe he could make the leonir mane into some sort of hood or cowl to scare away other monsters? That would be cool.

He still had the potion of questionable quality and effects, so he would deal with that later. His camelbak was empty- speaking of which, he needed to heal himself! He went over to the water fountain and splashed some water on his chest. The left side had been starting to bruise quite a bit, but the water seemed to sooth it, at least some of it.

Maybe healing wasn't an exact science, and it could only heal what was immediately there? That would explain why his open wounds could seal shut, and also why some of the bruising stayed there. After all, bruising was caused by blood vessels breaking under the skin. Maybe since his skin was getting in the way, the water couldn't heal the blood vessels underneath. That was useful to know.

But the wound no longer hurt as he stretched and bent over, feeling good as new. His body would take over the rest of the healing process, but it definitely was good to know that if it came down to it, he should take more cutting and stab wounds than heavy bludgeoning types of hits.

He also still had that magic tome, and he was certain that if he wasn't going to use it, then he could probably sell it above ground. At the very least, maybe he could give it to a magic user as incentive to join an adventuring party with him. It was worth a shot.

Speaking of, he wasn't sure just how valuable this tome was going to be. He opened it up and flipped through the pages. It was clearly organised by how powerful the spells were, which was good with him. He flipped to the last section, which held the most powerful spells. Let's see… 4th level spells. That was pretty good! If spell tiers worked the same way in this world as they did in D&D and Pathfinder, then he had just stumbled upon something that was worth, um…

He did the mental calculations in his head as he searched through the book. This thing had 5 cantrips, ten first level spells, ten second level spells, seven third level spells, and four fourth level spells. This thing was worth at _least _four thousand gold pieces. Although, that was presuming that the economy in this world was the same as in D&D, so he couldn't be certain without checking similar spell books and asking shopkeepers what they were worth.

But this thing could definitely help him out in the way of expenses if he ever needed to sell it. Worst case, he needed to sell it at a ridiculously low price so that he could survive. Best case scenario, he got an addition to his party and/or got some decent money for it.

But this was all assuming that he could make his way out of the dungeon. And in order to do that, he needed to go to the Ants.

He'd work on that tomorrow. The area that he was in was smack dab in the middle of the first section of the dungeon, so he'd have to work for hours to get to the Ant territory, and that wasn't even taking into account any fights that he'd encounter on the way there.

It was going to take a lot of work, but Max was certain of his course of action now. Tomorrow he'd start on his journey to get the hell out of this dungeon, especially now that he knew how big it was and how dangerous the lower levels were going to be. Or at least, how dangerous he estimated them to be. Since he still only had, like 7 levels, that put him at a level 1 or 2 adventurer in D&D. He couldn't afford to take on the lower levels of the dungeon unless he was stronger. And that included gaining allies.

With all of these thoughts, Max settled down to sleep once again, and heard the telltale voice in his head.

[Warrior level 8!]

[Skill - Basic Precision Obtained!]

[Skill - Diplomatic Approach Obtained!]

[Survivor level 4!]

Interesting. And then Max fell asleep.


	7. Chapter 7

Max woke up not really looking forward to the day ahead of him. He wasn't exactly keen on the idea with fighting his way to the Ant territory, especially if he didn't know what was going to happen when he got there.

"Do I really want to go forward with this?" He asked the air. The man let out a sigh of exasperation. The simplest answer was no, he really didn't want to tangle with a bunch of ants, nor did he want to get there without any healing abilities left. But Max knew, from playing hours and multiple tables of D&D, that he _would_ die down here eventually by himself.

If he didn't have anybody to back him up, then he would die in the more dangerous parts of the dungeon for sure. That was a certainty in his mind. No matter how strong he got, without decent armor and weapons with amazing enchantments, there was absolutely no way in the world that he was going to make it down here.

And knowing him, he already wanted to beat the thing. That was the most dangerous part of it. The adventurer in him, the part that had already bested encounter after encounter in his mind, it _wanted_ to explore. It _wanted_ to gain levels down here and complete the dungeon. Maybe he _could_ make it. He'd become the best [Warrior], or if he had his way, [Swashbuckler] in the entire world, and glory and power would go to him.

And that was the part of his brain that he told to shut up, because it had gotten three of his characters dead over the course of his time playing D&D. If he _really_ wanted to best this dungeon, then he would need help. He wasn't always going to get lucky, the further down into the dungeon he went, the more likely he was to run into traps.

It was a miracle in itself that the first trap he had run into was the Gargoyle room, and that had already been mostly cleared before he had gotten there. Perhaps this floor had already been explored by those who came before him, and they had gotten rid of a majority of the traps. That made sense. But it also made sense that the further down he went, the more likely he was to die to something that he couldn't see.

He'd need a [Rogue] or something to handle the traps. That was first on his list. Then, he'd need a [Wizard] or someone capable of blasting shit apart. Finally, a [Cleric], or some sort of magical healer. That would be sufficient. He'd take the role of Fighter, although if he could find another front liner while he was at it, he wouldn't say no. Especially not to a [Paladin] or [Barbarian]. That would be super cool.

But the real question was how he'd be able to convince them to join him on this quest. Glory-seekers would just jump into trouble, and might get him in trouble. But by the same token, people who thought about things too hard would be incredibly hard to convince to join him. At least a wizard or witch of some sort could be bribed with the spellbook, especially if he just handed it over to them.

So the answer was this; he didn't want to leave the dungeon, but he needed to if he wanted to live.

And with that conclusion, he prepared for his journey. Luckily, all of his good fit in the bag of holding. It was incredibly handy that he had found it so early into his journey, without it he probably would have died lugging all his shit to and from places in the dungeon. He'd have to drop everything every time a monster came and attacked him.

Not very efficient. But having this bag _was_ efficient. So he kept it tied to his belt. That way, if he needed anything from it, he'd have it ready in a matter of seconds.

He attached his rapier to his belt, and made sure that his bowie knife was snug on his other side. Once he was certain that he was properly equipped, he took a look around the area that he had been staying in one last time.

A fountain sat, it's sparkling water flowing freely from it. A couple of broken pieces of furniture sat in one corner, along with Max's chair that he slept in. He still had a small crick in his neck from sleeping in it for the past couple of days, but he'd been happy to have something rather than just the floor.

A makeshift fire pit sat in the corner, and Max saw the remnants of last night's fire in the form of charcoal. If anybody else came by while he was gone, hopefully they'd see the signs of living and know that the water was safe to drink from.

A small chest sat off to the side, empty of it's belongings. That was where he had gotten his bag of holding from. It was plain wood, but it was important to Max, since it represented the first treasure that he had gotten down here.

And so, with a weary nod of his head, he departed his camp. He would return one day, with a group of people ready to take on the dungeon. Until then, he'd leave it alone. It would serve as a place of protection, just in case anybody else managed to make their way into the dungeon.

As the thought flitted through his head, he was struck by another; what if someone else from his world appeared in this dungeon while he was gone? They'd have no way to defend themselves.

It was with this harrowing thought that gave Max pause. If someone else stumbled in from his world, then they were in for danger. He rushed back to his camp, and took his bowie knife off of his leg, and left it on the edge of the fountain. He also laid his rusted broadsword against the wall. Just in case.

And with that, Max actually took off, not looking back once.

Max had traversed this maze three times now; once on his first way through, and twice when he had gone to get the sewing supplies and when he had gotten the rapier. He still had to figure out what this thing was made out of. Adamantium? Mithral? He wasn't certain, but he had a feeling it was one of the two, that is assuming that either existed in this world.

He was making good progress through the maze when he walked right into a group of undead. Ok, maybe he didn't exactly _walk into them_, but he stumbled upon them and they noticed him instantly.

He pulled his sword out, and got ready to fight. Max wasn't certain which of these were more dangerous to him. He was pretty sure that normal damage didn't always kill zombies, but that could just be in D&D.

On the other hand, the skeletons from the day before had barely been able to hit him. But that had been with him parrying attacks and getting ripostes off. He was pretty sure that he'd be in this fight for significantly longer.

He wasn't going to let the undead get the first hit in, however. That would be stupid. So he rushed them, and jumped over the first slash that came for him, clearing the skeleton and stabbed at one of the ones in the back, who was wielding a short bow.

From memory, undead with ranged weapons were so much more of a hassle than undead with melee weapons. You couldn't parry ranged attacks, or at least you can't in Pathfinder. And Max wasn't about to take any chances.

He must have been a total badass in his past life, or rolled two nat 20's in a row, because he utter eviscerated the bow wielding skeleton with that one strike. What an absolute confidence booster! He saw a swing coming at him from one of the zombies, who were wielding swords, and parried it with easy, before riposting and stabbing the zombie right through the head.

It was unfortunate that he was using a rapier and not some slashing weapon, as cutting the head off the zombie _might_ have been more effective, but he could tell that he had done some damage to the undead creature.

Three more sloppy attacks came for him, but they were uncoordinated, and Max was easily able to evade them. What a pitiable group of undead! Max was able to sneak in another attack on the skeleton closest to him, but was saddened by the fact that he didn't destroy this one in one hit too. He was, however, able to destroy the shoulder of the skeleton, meaning that it had to stop and pick up its weapon with its other hand before it could attack him again.

He was so caught up in this, that he failed to dodge all three attacks from the other undead. Luckily, he was only hit once, but his pride was hit too. He had been certain that he'd be able to parry if he was sure that he wasn't able to dodge in time.

He pulled himself together. He needed to be more wary. The zombie that had hit him had left a nasty gash on his left upper arm. It didn't really affect him that much, but it was bleeding a little nonetheless.

He'd have to resolve this quickly. He struck out at the skeleton that he had just hit, dealing a nasty blow to it's head, but still it stood. The skeleton managed to cut him a little bit as he hit it, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the hit from the zombie earlier. He watched the attacks coming from the others, and made to parry one of them.

He wasn't exactly successful, but he managed to parry it without taking the hit. Unluckily, he had missed his riposte attempt in dodging the other attacks. His swordplay would need some work.

He hit the skeleton that he'd been working on, and this time he took it down without a problem. That left two zombies and a single skeleton. He had already stabbed one of the zombies earlier, but it appeared as though it hadn't been affected much by the wound.

The zombie in question made to attack him, and he _knew_ by the arc of the blade that he didn't have time to dodge it. His hand rose instinctively, and somehow he managed to parry the attack. How had he done that?

He didn't have time to wonder, and pressed the momentary advantage. He cut at the zombie, and then proceeded to dodge the attacks from the other undead.

This zombie was beginning to take a beating from him, but he could tell that it was still hitting hard. Maybe he should just go for the last skeleton before focusing on the zombies. With that thought in mind, he took careful aim, and swung hard at the skeleton in question. His sword cut through the skeleton like butter, and he remembered that his weapon was capable of piercing rock, of course it would be effective against bone!

Max dodged out of the way of the zombies' attacks, before turning in time to parry the attack coming from the skeleton. He cut at it again, this time barely striking it. Maybe precise stabs were better than reckless swinging, especially when using a rapier.

He focused on his target again, before piercing the skeleton straight through the chest, breaking it's body to pieces. Three skeletons down, two zombies to go.

The more damaged zombie swung at him, and he didn't even bother with a parry as he dodged the attack and drove his weapon right through the creature's neck, severing the spine, and the undead creature dropped to the ground in a lump of rotten flesh.

The final zombie didn't have an easier time of striking at him, and missed him entirely. Max took the moment to attack the creature, striking it in the legs. Now hobbling, it made to attack him, and missed entirely. Max cut at the zombie's face, before taking a risk and striking at it one last time.

Time slowed down for Max for a moment as he cut through the creature's chest, starting at the hip and dragging his sword all the way up through the chest to the other side of the neck.

With the creature cut in two, it was no longer able to sustain itself, and Max looked at the sight in front of him.

If he had encountered this group of monsters on his first time through the maze, he was certain that he would be dead. But with the power of a clearly well made rapier, and being a level 8 [Warrior], he had taken those things down like they were nothing. And he had only gotten hit twice!

Max took a moment to get out the camelbak and heal his wounds before continuing. He had a long trek ahead of him.

He set out through the rest of the maze, and after a little bit, made his way back to the first room that he had slept in. Even though it had just been a couple of days ago that he had first entered into this world, it felt like forever ago that Max had killed his first monster here.

He shook his head and made to continue, before grabbing one of the cloaks that wasn't so moth eaten. Just in case the land above was in winter, you know? Max didn't want to be walking around in a bunch of snow wearing just a t-shirt and pants.

He actually left the room this time, and wandered to where he had first entered this world. The beat up and dejected wooden door sat at the end of the tunnel, and Max gave it a thumbs down before he continued. He had really been hoping to play that new Fire Emblem game, but now it was more likely than not that he'd never get the chance. Oh well, if he was going to get stuck in this world, he was going to make the most of it.

Max wandered into the Idex room, and looked at the remains of the smashed eggs and destroyed Idex that he had taken out. Sweet memories here. This was where he had picked up his rapier, and what a beauty it was. He took a moment to appreciate it, before steeling himself for the rest of the journey.

There would be no going back once he walked into Ant territory, and even though it was still another hour of exploring away from him by the look of the map, he was still committing himself to leaving the dungeon one way or another by continuing through the other side of this room.

By death or life. He'd leave the dungeon dead or alive, and wasn't that always the case? He'd thought that he would die down here when he'd first arrived. He'd seen monsters attack one another, and he'd taken down the Leonir looking for a water source.

Speaking of water sources, Max finally realized that he would have to make it past the Hydra if he wanted to head into Ant territory. What a welcome sign that must have been for the Ants, to have to deal with a Hydra upon first entering the dungeon. Hopefully Max could sneak by it, since he was completely positive that he wouldn't be able to take down a fully grown hydra at his current level. Hell, he probably should have tried to reach level 15 [Warrior] before he had come this way.

But it was too late to back down now. He'd just have to try really hard to sneak past it, and hope it was sleeping or something.

He stepped out of the lair of the Idex, and made his way towards the underground lake. On the way, he got bit by a giant rat, but managed to take it down without any other problems. He also encountered another two skeletons, but they were just as easy to defeat as the ones from earlier, and he didn't take any damage due to his parrying and dodging ability. He was getting a little better at this whole parrying thing, and his arms weren't as sore as yesterday after the effort of parrying so much. Still, he shouldn't strain himself too much, and promised to himself that he'd only parry as much as needed to not take hits, rather than just to practice it.

His journey was coming close to its end. He entered into an underground cavern that had a ceiling so high that he couldn't even see it through the darkness. What he _could_ see, however, was a sleeping hydra along the beach of the lake, sleeping directly between him and the other cavern entrance, the way towards the Ants.

What was the most heartbreaking, however, wasn't the fact that the beast lay between him and the way out of the cave. What really stung was the fact that while the beast clearly slept, one of the heads remained up and swivelled about, clearly making sure that nothing snuck up on it while it was resting. The hydra had five heads, four of which were definitely snoozing. But that last head…

Max couldn't sneak by that beast. Not while that head was awake. What were his options? He could try and fight the beast. CR 8 by D&D standards, which meant that even with a party of 4, he'd be stupid to even try and take it down before level 25 to 30. That could be arranged. But not here and now. He'd need to be level 40 just to fight it by himself and make it out alive. He was level 8. Level 12 if you counted the [Survivor] levels, which Max sure didn't.

So that meant that his only other option was to try and swim around it. Max knew that hydras were water based creatures. So the lake was probably it's domain; there likely wasn't anything in the water that could kill him, as the hydra would have taken down anything that opposed it.

That was the safer option. But not by much. The beast would surely notice the ripples on the water's surface and would come to investigate. Then he'd die.

There really wasn't an option to him. He'd just have to risk swimming. His only other option would be to wait for the hydra to wake up and hope that he could make a run for the other side of the cave while it hunted for food below to the surface of the lake. But who knew how long that would take, and Max really didn't want to risk waiting here for too long, that gave the hydra a better chance of spotting him.

He took a stop towards the water. He'd have to make this quick. Max walked into the lake, and mentally prepared himself for his ankles to touch freezing cold water. But it didn't quite happen like that. Instead, a small flash of blue light came from his right hand, and the water around Max's sneakers solidified, giving him traction atop the water's surface.

"What the fuck?" Max hissed out, before realizing what had happened. "A ring of water walking? Holy shit! This thing has got to be worth a fortune."

He snapped his head towards where the hydra lay, and it still didn't seem to see him. He was lucky, but now he'd be quiet. He snuck onto the lake, watching as the water seemed to carry him above with not even a ripple to show that he had been there. He was so fucking lucky that the ring that he had found on his second day here was one of water walking. He took his time, and twice he had to still to make sure that the hydra wasn't looking at him, but he successfully walked a perimeter around the hydra without it spotting him, and after a half an hour, he was on the other side of the beach.

What a stressful time, all to be circumvented by luck! He wished that he had known what he had beforehand, planning this all out would have been a hell of a lot easier. But now he knew what he had, and a ring of water walking was beyond worth. Well, in D&D, it was worth like 15k gold, but now this ring was worth his life, and there was a snowball's chance in hell that he was selling it unless he absolutely needed to.

He took one last look at the sleeping hydra and gave it a salute, before continuing into the dungeon. He soon came to the spot that his map had said was the entrance to the Ant territory, and came to a full stop at the sight ahead of him.

Not twenty paces ahead, laying strewn about like broken dolls, lay the utterly destroyed bodies of what must have been hundreds of giant ants.


	8. Chapter 8

Max was in shock. Or at least, he definitely hadn't been expecting this. Whatever had done this was ruthless and cruel, and the ants hadn't stood a chance. There wasn't even any sign of what they had fought, only ant bodies remained.

Max probably would have thrown up at the bloodshed if he had seen this days ago, before he had killed to survive. As it was, a small amount of bile still filled his mouth, and he spit out the horrid taste. He began walking into the hive, and still saw ant bodies left and right, all broken and destroyed in some manner.

This was, excessive. The young man wasn't sure what could have done this, unless it was the hydra itself. But still, by the look of these ants…

They looked strong. Not just strong, but overwhelmingly powerful. Even dead, their bodies were those of seasoned warriors, and Max could tell just by looking at them that they'd have been able to kill him in an instant.

He didn't want to find out what had killed them. Because that would mean that whatever killed them, would be coming for him next. Maybe they had ventured too far down into the dungeon? It was horrifying to think of, but maybe the monsters had _awoken_, and followed them all the way back to the hive? Through floors and levels of the dungeon, even?

It was a sick thought, but what if this was the work of the boss monster at the bottom of the dungeon. Would it have to power to simply kill them all this gruesomely from a distance? Maybe it created a series of monsters just to take out the ants.

What had they done to warrant such total devastation?

Max didn't have all the answers to his questions, and honestly, he'd rather not know for now. It might be knowledge that got the ants killed, rather than them going through the dungeon itself. What kind of knowledge was so dangerous that monsters needed to wipe out all of these ants just to protect it?

Max stopped moving when he heard sounds coming from ahead of him. He couldn't see that well in the gloom, so he hid behind inside an offshooting tunnel. Whatever it was didn't seem to see him. But he saw it all right. It was a hulking beast on two legs, it's heavy arms swinging low to the ground. It had giant spikes on its back, and one large glowing eye in the center of its head. Rows of sharp teeth, reminding him of a shark, hung from the creatures open jaw as it salivated.

Clearly this thing was one of the many monsters that had fought the ants. Max didn't want to tussle with it, as it reminded him of one of the shark monsters from the Bloodborne DLC. Not something that he wanted to deal with. He hid until he was certain that the monster was gone, and continued to make his way through the tunnel system.

He had no way of knowing just how big the ants' colony had been until he had already been walking for two hours. In that time, he had fought off giant spiders like you wouldn't believe it, an ogre like thing with two heads, a long snake like monster with tentacles coming from its mouth, and even a creature that looked like a mini werewolf.

He was doing fine until he came across a large domed room, clearly meant to house the queen of the hive.

He knew instinctively what was going on here the moment that he stepped into the room. Hoards of jewels and gold coins littered the ground and piled up in the center of the room.

Red eyes glowed, their piercing gaze cutting through the darkness. Orange flames flickered, and the fire was reflected among the countless gems and gold.

_Dragon_.

Max's legs almost gave out below him, but he forced himself to keep looking. The beast looked just like those in the minds of humans on his planet, with deep red scales that glittered with gemstones sticking to them, providing even more natural armor than otherwise. A yellow underbelly remained against the floor, clearly this was the most exposed part of the beast.

Four giant horns rose from the dragon's head, spiraling like ram's horns and framing the beast's head. It's nostrils breathed a sulphuric air, and Max could see fumes entering into the tunnel air.

On second glance, however, this dragon was small. Sure, it was big, but only as big as a bedroom in a house. It wasn't nearly the size that he had first imagined seeing a dragon. Which meant that this thing was probably young, a dragonling.

Either way, Max was dead. He didn't have the physical ability to take on a dragonling, and especially not one that could breathe fire. And the beast had noticed him.

It didn't even give him a moment's notice before it lunged for him, and it bit at his left arm, and might have torn it off if it weren't for the rapier that plunged its way into the beast's eye. The beast let out a roar of pain as it's left eye was blinded, and jumped back a distance, and eyed him with it's remaining eye.

Max had to admit. That was a lucky strike that he had gotten, and in the knick of time too. But he needed to watch the beast to see what it would do. Those wicked claws looked like they could tear him to shreds with just one swing. The beast inhaled, and Max quickly dove behind a large pile of treasure before a jet of flames coiled about the pile, barely touching him.

This was a real fight for his life. Never before had Max felt so utterly useless. When he had fought the Gargoyle, that had been an easy fight once he knew that his rapier could pierce stone. When he had run for his life upon first entering the dungeon, he had relief in the form of the brain monster fighting the Idex. When he had fought the Leonir, he hadn't taken so much as a scratch.

This thing was a _dragon_, and it was gunning to kill him with all the power that it held. His only hope here was if he got lucky. Or maybe?

He stepped out and looked at the dragonling, and spoke.

"Oh mighty dragon. I plead forgiveness for disturbing you in your nest." The dragon interrupted him with a roar, and lunged for him once more, but he saw this attack coming and deftly moved to the side, as a matador might a bull.

"As I was saying, I had no wish to fight with you. But if you continue this aggression, I swear that I will cut your heart out myself and bring you to hell with me."

Max's body glowed for a second, before the glow faded. That was it, right? [Diplomatic Approach] He offered peace, and then retribution if the dragon continued to fight him.

The red lizard wasn't interested, and it swiped at him once again. This time, he raised his arm and caught the beast's claw on his rapier, and swatted it away with a strength that he didn't know that he had. The dragon was surprised by the parry too, apparently, but Max held no hesitation as he swung his blade and lopped off the dragon's hand.

His weapon glowed orange, the same glimmer that he had when making the diplomatic offer. Maybe he had gained some sort of buff from the creature refusing his offer? Regardless, the beast shrieked in pain, before breathing fire at Max once more.

He managed to roll underneath the flames, barely getting burnt by them. Luckily, his cloak seemed to take the brunt of the attack. He was now underneath the belly of the dragon, and thrust his blade upwards into the unprotected underside.

His blade drove true, and a large hole now adorned the beast's chest. Max took it a step further, however, and dragged his rapier through the dragon's belly, leaving a large gash, before he unsheathed the rapier from the dragon's stomach.

The dragon roared, and Max was deaf for a moment. This was getting easier as time went on. He was no longer totally afraid of the beast, and felt as though he had a chance of winning.

The dragon jumped back a bit, before attempting to bite at him again. It once more bit into his left shoulder, as Max wasn't able to fully dodge out of the way of it's attack, but his leather armor stopped the brunt of the damage. He cried out in pain, and stabbed the dragon once more in the dead eye.

The creature cried out again, and released him. He'd need to take care of that other eye if he wanted to take the beast down. At least then it would be less likely to get a bite off on him.

The creature breathed in again, and Max had enough time to slide under it's back legs before it blasted the spot that he had just been in. He had a crazy idea, but it might just save him from further harm. He climbed up the tail of the dragon, almost slipping for a moment, before he was on the creature's back.

He saw the wings that the creature was using to clear large spaces, and took aim for a second, before piercing straight through the beast's spine in between the wings. If his eyes didn't deceive him, there were a bundle of nerves here that connected the wings to the rest of the body and allowed it to move about. He jabbed at the nerves with his rapier twice and then hopped off the beast before it could fling him off, tumbling to the ground and landing on his feet.

The dragon was writhing in pain, but it was clearly still standing. It looked at him with pure hatred, and gave a half assed lunge for his right hand this time, knowing that without his rapier he was useless. He sidestepped and thrust his rapier into the beast's other eye, tearing it out with a sickening splatter of blood.

The red dragonling roared at the open air, and then took a large breath of air. Max's eyes widened, and he quickly took cover as the dragon blasted the entire area with flames. The fire didn't let up for a good thirty seconds, and once it was over, Max took a look at the dragon.

It was blinded, that much was clear. It was bleeding from its chest, and one of its wings hung limply at its side. It's right claw was severed, and Max marvelled at the power of his rapier. If this was the effect that he was going to get from just one basic ability plus his rapier's natural ability to cleave through solid objects, then Max was definitely going to keep it. No use trading in what worked, you know?

But the battle was almost over. He now had the advantage; the dragon wasn't looking for him, and clearly thought that it had roasted him with its last attack. And so Max walked up to the beast, who was licking its wounds, and shoved his rapier straight into the exposed forehead of the dragon, stabbing it in the brain.

The creature let out a howl of pain, before collapsing to the ground, and Max did the same. Holy shit. He had killed a dragon.

His wounds were massive. His left arm hung limply from getting bitten twice, and he had burn marks on his legs and right arm. His face was unhurt, luckily, but he felt the pain crash all over him at once.

He needed the fountain water. He quickly summoned the camelbak from his bag of holding and poured it all over his wounds, not caring how much he used. And the water did it's job, healing him, knitting together the bite marks on his left shoulder, undoing the two degree burns that adorned his legs and right arm.

But Max was still exhausted. He needed to take a few moments to rest. If that battle had lasted another minute, then surely the dragon would have killed him. The only reason that he was still alive was because he had blinded the beast at the last minute, allowing him to hide from its devastating fire attack.

His eyes grew heavy. He needed sleep. He'd been travelling for the whole day, and had just fought his hardest battle yet. Surely he could rest for just a moment…

[Conditions Met: Warrior → Swashbuckler Class!]

[Class Consolidation: Warrior removed]

[Swashbuckler Class Obtained!]

[Swashbuckler Level 4!]

[Skill - Monstrous Auto Parry Obtained!]

[Skill Change: Sword Proficiency → Rapier Training]

[Conditions Met: Survivor → Monster Hunter Class!]

[Class Consolidation: Survivor removed]

[Monster Hunter Class Obtained!]

[Monster Hunter Level 2!]

[Skill - Monster Appraisal Obtained!]

[Skill - Hunter's Blade Obtained!]


	9. Chapter 9

When Max woke up, he was sore. His body had bruises all over, and he was lying atop droves of treasure. He looked around, trying to remember where he was, when the events of last night hit him.

He had fought a _dragon_. Alright, sure, it was little more than a wyrmling. But he had taken it down. He had killed it! He had been sure that he would have died. And yet, he had come out on top.

He checked his body, and saw that he was bruised all over from his old wounds. The water couldn't heal everything, and he was almost out of it.

But Max's attention wandered again. He had finally become a [Swashbuckler]! And he had also gained the [Monster Hunter] class. He had barely played the Monster Hunter games, but he had some sort of idea for how he could level in it.

What worried Max a little bit was the fact that both of the classes that he had gained were a lower level than the ones that he had lost. Maybe it worked like Fire Emblem, where advanced classes began anew at lower levels? That was the only explanation that he could think of that didn't mean that he had lost levels overall.

But he had new skills now too! [Rapier Training] had replaced [Sword Proficiency], which probably meant that he was stuck with using a rapier if he wanted the best effect for fighting.

And [Monstrous Auto Parry]. That was a weird name for a skill to have, but considering what happened yesterday… It probably meant that he could parry an attack that would deal heavy damage to him. That could be useful, especially if he was going to be fighting monsters for his other class.

[Monster Appraisal] sounded self explanatory enough. There were a few classes and skills in D&D that allowed you to watch an enemy's style and strategy for fighting, and made fighting them easier. This skill probably did something similar.

And finally, [Hunter's Blade]. Max wasn't certain what that skill would give him, but it obviously had to do with hunting in some capacity. What did hunters do? They skinned animals, but Max already had [Animal Skinning] from earlier. Maybe it just made it easier for Max to hurt animals and monsters? He wasn't sure.

Max turned his attention to the dragonling that lay dead near him. Maybe he should test it out, he was a little hungry, and eating dragon meat could be fun… He took his rapier, since he had left his Bowie knife at the fountain, and sat down and worked on the dragon. His rapier cleanly sliced through the dragonling's scales, and it took him significantly less time to cut off the scales from the beast than it had for him to skin the leonir.

After an hour and a half, the dragon's hide was cleared off of its body, and he had a pile of scaly hide that was slightly bigger than him. Maybe he could make this into some armor, or if he got out of here, he could have someone else make it into armor.

He set about cutting meat off of the dragon, set up a fireplace, and began to cook himself some dragon meat. His eyes widened when he tasted the dragon, and began to cook even more. This was delicious! Not to mention that it had been two days since he'd eaten meat last, but this was clearly quality meat for eating.

Once Max was done, he carefully fit the dragon scales into his bag of holding. It didn't overfill, and Max once again wondered at how much this bag of holding could carry. If memory served, in D&D and Pathfinder, bags of holding could carry in increments of 250, 500, 1000 and 1500 lbs of weight. Although, this was it's own world, so maybe it had varying magics and whatnot.

Max looked around at the piles of gemstones and gold pieces. It would be a waste to just leave this here, especially if he was going to be leaving. He began gathering as many gems as he could, since they would obviously sell for more than a single gold coin, and also put them into his bag of holding.

Eventually, the bag weighed about 50 lbs, and it wouldn't accept anything else put into it. Max decided that he could always return for the rest of the hoard at a later date, and made a mental note of where he was. The queen ant's chamber. That should help him find his way back, especially if he had a trustworthy party to help him carry all of this.

Max took another look around the place, and saw a couple of weapons and armor pieces littering the area. The only thing that looked particularly of use was a weapon rack that held a shining greatsword. Max decided to clear some space in his bag of holding to make room for the greatsword, dumping the remainder of the leonir pelt and a bunch of gemstones in the process. He didn't want to carry the greatsword around with him, as that would weigh him down way more than a [Swashbuckler] wanted.

But if the greatsword was enchanted, it could hypothetically cost a lot of money too. So obviously Max was going to take it with him, he'd be stupid not to.

With another cursory glance about the chamber, Max decided that he had gathered the most important and expensive treasures. There were a couple of statuettes of dragons and ivory pieces, but Max wasn't interested in weighing the worth of gems and miscellaneous things. He'd come back for those again.

Max was still sore, so he decided that he was going to take it slow from here on out. He didn't have any better armor from the dragon's stockpile, which was a shame, but he figured with all of this gold he could probably buy something or get his scales tailored into a light weight scale mail. That would probably be for the best. He could also hypothetically sell the dragon scales if there was a market for it, so there was that.

Max glanced about the chamber again, before making his way into the ant hive again. He had journeyed for a couple of hours before he had found the queen's chamber, which was probably far below the surface of the earth anyways. He sighed, before setting out on his journey again.

It was taking a while, hiding from certain monsters that Max was certain would be just as dangerous as the dragonling that he had faced earlier, dispatching others, before he came across something actually dangerous that he couldn't avoid.

The beast had a large beak, and had small spikes that lined it's back and arms. It's arms were chitinous claws, both of which ended in scythe-like appendages. The creature didn't have eyes, but it made soft clicking sounds, and the instant that Max got too close, its head swivelled towards him.

Echolocation. Something that Max had always been fascinated by, but now it meant that he'd have to fight this beast. It reminded him of a mix between a crab, a praying mantis, and an eagle.

It took a slow step towards him, and Max decided that those arms were much too dangerous to allow to stay. He swung with his rapier, but the beast dodged out of the way, before attempting to swipe at him with both of it's arms.

The first arm Max dodged with ease, and the second one he parried to the side. With the temporary advantage, Max riposted, but the beast dodged once more out of the way of his attacks. This thing was nimble for something without eyes!

Max grit his teeth and stabbed at the creature, finally able to cut a bit at the creature's leg as it tried to dodge again. A cry of pain came from the beast, and it once more tried to attack him with it's arms. Its first attack missed, and Max once again tried to parry the second attack, but he missed with his rapier and it's scythe arm cut into his shoulder, drawing a bit of blood in the process.

Max was frustrated at his inability to parry the creature's attack, and struck out at it again, but the beast dodged his attack for a third time.

The beast clicked its beak and charged him, this time swinging not only its claws, but also trying to bite him. He dodged the bite attempt with ease, as well as one of the claws, but the other one caught him across the stomach. It didn't go as deep as the wound on his shoulder, but that scythe arm was dangerous!

Max backed off and decided that if the beast was this hard to hit, then he needed to actually use his skills. He wasn't sure how to actually activate his abilities, so he called out, "[Monster Appraisal]!"

His eyes suddenly zoomed in on the beast, and time seemed to slow down for a moment. Those claws were definitely the most dangerous part of the beast. It had a long blade meant to draw blood and weaken opponents. The beast had a long tail, which Max actually hadn't noticed at first glance. Tails typically existed to maintain balance, and it wouldn't be able to move as nimbly if he were able to cut it off.

That beak was dangerous too, but it wasn't going to use it all the time. It seemed to rely on the arms more than its mouth. Its legs also didn't seem the most stable, as they ended in hoof-like appendages. Horse legs were incredibly weak, and any damage to them and they'd just die, not being able to run anymore.

So the beast had some weak spots. Max smiled, despite bleeding a bit from his wounds. He had already cut the beast's leg once, he thought that it was time to try and go for it again.

The creature came at him, as he had used the skill to check it out instead of taking time to attack it, and cut at him once again with its claws. Both of the attacks were easy to dodge with his newfound knowledge of the creature, and he cut at the beast's leg once more.

His rapier stabbed through the beast's leg, and with Max's small understanding of physiology, he knew that he had cut a couple of muscles.

The monster let out a bigger cry than the one earlier, and began to move with a limp. It clicked, and after sensing where he was, came at him, albeit much slower this time.

With the beast moving so slowly, he easily dodged both of the attacks, and slashed at the creature's tail. He caught the tail right near the stump, and his weapon flashed crimson as it cut the tail off on one swing.

The creature tripped from the momentum of it's lunge, without the counterbalance of its tail to keep it up. With the beast on the ground, Max jabbed his weapon into the shoulder of the beast, crippling it further, before jumping back as the other arm came swiping up at him.

He took a last look at the beast on the ground, and stabbed it through with his weapon one last time. The cry that came from the creature slowly faded, and Max wiped his rapier off with an oiled rag that he kept in his pocket. It wouldn't do to let the blood stay on the blade.

Max used what remained of his water to barely heal his wounds, but at least they weren't bleeding out anymore. He could always find more water once he reached above ground.

He looked at the creature again, and made his way further up in the hive, leaving the monstrosity behind him.

He was doing more damage to beasts, that was for certain. Maybe it had to do with his [Hunter's Blade] ability? That made sense. If his sword was able to cut through monster hides, then of course it would bypass damage reduction and natural armor. His rapier was wickedly sharp, and he was taking care of it too. The skill that he had probably meant that he was able to cut deep into a beast with little to no resistance, which certainly helped him fight them.

Not just that, but the [Monster Appraisal] had really come in handy. Max wondered if, like in D&D and Pathfinder, there was a limit to how many times you could use the ability a day. If that was the case, then he'd need to test the limits of it once he wasn't in as dangerous a location.

Finally, after another couple of hours of fighting monsters and climbing his way through the large hive, he saw a pinprick of sunlight. He knew that he should reserve his strength, since he was out of water, and kept his walking pace rather than running.

By his rough estimate, given his walking speed and how long it had taken him to make his way to the surface, Max gauged the size of the ant hive to be just over five miles big. And that wasn't accounting for all of the side passages that he had encountered and not gone down, instead just going up whenever the opportunity presented itself.

Whatever these ants were, there had been thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of them. And the dungeon had wiped them out.

Max was glad that he had been able to avoid most of the more dangerous monsters that walked through the hive. If he didn't, he wasn't certain that even with five camelbaks of healing water he'd be able to stay alive. If he had had to fight two dragons at the same time? Dead. If he'd had to fight two of those scythe arm beasts? Dead. He was lucky that he'd been able to make it this far.

He finally reached the entrance to the cave, and felt the warm sunlight on his face. Ah, how refreshing.

"What the hell?" Came a voice from in front of him, and Max blinked, allowing his eyes to adjust to the sunlight.

There were a bunch of humans that had set up camp outside of the cave entrance, and were all holding some form of weaponry. Bows were aimed at him, and what looked like magic users were aiming spells at him.

Clearly they weren't expecting a human to come out of the ant hive. This looked like a group meant to fight off any monsters that came from the hive. That made sense. So Max did what any sane person who just spent days below ground would do. He licked his lips and said, "Hey, do any of you have some water? I've run out, and honestly it is really hard to get water down there."

The looks of astonishment on the soldier's faces was totally worth it.


	10. Chapter 10

The soldiers obviously hadn't thought that his question was as funny as he did, so Max refrained from laughing. They all looked a bit awestruck as they took in the sight, and Max had to wonder what he looked like.

He was wearing basic Earth clothes, a cut up red t-shirt and some black pants to match, which was covered by a set of studded leather armor. On his back was a grey cloak, with rips hemming the bottom, clear signs of use on it. He hadn't shaved in days, and he was sure that his faint stubble was a thing of the past; he had always grown facial hair pretty quickly.

His black hair was sure to be a bit shaggier than he liked to keep it, so he ran his hands through his hair to smooth it out a bit. Presentation was important, right? He had a bag of holding on his belt on his right side, and a rapier sheathed at his left.

Overall, not the kind of person that you'd expect to be making it out alive from a monster infested cave.

"Who- who the hell are you?" A voice asked, and Max turned to the questioner. A stocky woman, probably in her late forties if Max was right, stood off to the side. She clearly was the one in charge here, as she had a cape and a helmet with a small plume.

Dumbasses. If you were smart, you definitely didn't indicate who was in charge of a group just by what they were wearing. That's how you got the leader dead, and the group of soldiers without someone to lead them.

Anyways, Max wasn't about to point this out to the group of soldiers, so he answered her question as any swashbuckler should, with panache. He stuck out one arm, the other bent over his chest, and stuck out a leg and slowly moved it behind him, bowing slightly.

"My name is Maxwell Caiden, at your service milady. [Swashbuckler] is my trade, and Hunting Monsters is my game, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Max heard some lowering of weapons and spells at his words. He honestly hadn't expected them to speak English, although they likely didn't call it that here. But he sure was lucky that they did, as it meant that the man didn't immediately have to fight the locals over them not understanding him. That could've been dangerous.

"A [Swashbuckler], eh? Then why does it look like you lost a fight with an oldblood drake who pitied you enough to let you live?"

Drake. That was a new word. Maybe a species of Monster? Or maybe another intelligent species. Just because Max had only encountered monsters and humans so far in this world, didn't necessarily mean that every creature was a monster, and he'd do well to remember that.

"It might have been the dragonling that I killed in the ant cave. It was nesting where I presumed their queen lived. You wouldn't happen to know if there are any left, would you? I have some questions about the dungeon that I just escaped from."

His words left the group of people even more speechless than when he had first came out of the hive. Maybe… they didn't know about the dungeon? That meant that it was hidden miles underground, without anybody contesting the loot in the place. But it also meant that barely anybody had done any real work in clearing it out.

Perhaps the Demons knew more about it, but Max was loathe to try and talk to demons. If they were anything like the ones from christianity, or really any religion from earth, they were not the kind of people that you wanted to make dealings with. But for information on the dungeon…

"The Antinium? Don't you know that they left Rhir a decade ago and settled on Issrysil? They haven't been seen on Rhir since. And what's this about a dungeon? And forgive me, but _you_ killed a _dragonling?_"

Max went through my options quickly. Tell the soldiers about the dungeon, hypothetically launching a mass invasion into it, which might bring up whatever had clearly tried to wipe out these, Antinium. Tell them that he was confused, and had mixed up a dungeon with the Antinium Hive, and still have to explain why exactly he had been down there. It was a tough choice, but Max still felt the first option would be better, especially if he spun it well enough…

"Ah, yeah, the Antinium. Right. Well, let's just say that a teleport spell went wrong and I ended up miles below the surface. I came out in what was clearly the uppermost levels of a dungeon, and upon finding a map, found out that the only way out was either through the Antinium Hive, or through the demons."

Max paused, taking note of the scowls that hit the soldier's faces as he mentioned the demons, and continued. "So, obviously, I couldn't go up to the fucking demons, you know? They'd kill me on the spot! What a bunch of assholes. Anyways, so I was thinking, didn't the Antinium leave Rhir a while back? Maybe I can get to the surface through their Hive. Badda bing, badda boom, a couple days later and here I am."

Max could tell that he had earned sympathy from some of the soldiers, but others clearly weren't buying it. One such soldier, a short fellow with an axe spoke up.

"You're telling me that you not only fought through hordes of monsters to make your way through the Antinium Hive, but also that there's a dungeon down there that they knew about? Also, you expect us to believe that you killed a dragonling while you were down there?"

Some other soldiers clearly were on the side of this nay-sayer. Max couldn't wait to make them speechless for a third time in ten minutes.

"I'm going to reach into my bag of holding here, and pull out the dragons scales, alright? If that'll make you believe me."

Max said this, knowing that any sudden moves could get a randomly aimed spell or arrow sent his way, and wanted to make sure that he was in as little danger as possible. Upon getting a nod from the captain, he opened his bag of holding up and started to take out the dragon's pelt.

It was a lot of fucking work to get it in there, since the dragonling had been relatively big. The scales alone weighed just about two hundred pounds, so Max had to sit on the ground as he pulled the monster's skin out inch by inch. The looks of astonishment quickly looked to ones of horror as they realized that he was telling the truth, and they looked at him as if he was some kind of monster himself.

Once he had fully taken the dragon's scales out of the bag, leaving a mass that was bigger than him, another soldier asked with clear fear in his voice, "Just who the hell are you again?"

Max smirked, and gave a low bow. "The name's Max, and I told you already, I'm just a normal [Swashbuckler], who happens to also be a [Monster Hunter] on the side.

One of the guards fainted, and Max let out that laugh that he had been holding in.

After telling the soldiers his story, omitting that he came from another world, of course, as well as letting them touch the scales to prove that he was telling the truth, they gave him some water.

"So, tell me about yourselves, I only barely know where I am right now, although it's nice to see friendly faces after fighting for my life down there for a couple of days."

The captain responded first. "I am Licia Stormrider, [Captain] in charge of this small group of [Soldiers]. We're stationed here for the remainder of the week, until the next group comes to relieve us of our duties."

Max nodded, taking a long drought of his goblet, before settling it back on the table. "Isn't this close to the Demon territories, though? Wouldn't it be dangerous to remain here for any extended amount of time?"

Licia gave a sigh, but answered with a grin. "Anybody who is here is at least level 20. We only have those who have trained sufficiently risk their necks out here this close to the Demon lands. That being said, we absolutely have to cover the Hive entrances. If what you are telling me is correct, then not only were monsters just spawning down there, but it looks like we've got an active dungeon continuously making more of the beasts. It's no wonder why we haven't been able to take care of all of the monsters, even after a year of clearing them out. We've been afraid to enter the Hive, just in case there was a monster horde ready to rush us from the provocation."

Max nodded, and listened intently. All of this was useful information. These soldiers were part of something called the Blighted Kingdom, and they were at odds with the Demons. Constant warfare had beset the land, but the Kingdom still felt the need to send their warriors into Demon territory to stop the surge of monsters anyways.

"Do you think that the Demons are getting attacked by monsters too, or do you think that they're able to tame the beasts and use them in war against you?" Max wasn't sure that he actually wanted the answer if it were the latter, as that would be incredibly advantageous on the side of the Demons. A monster army… Max shuddered at the thought.

"So far, we've seen them utilize a couple of beasts, but they haven't overtly been using them. They'd need a lot of [Beast Trainers], or a [Beast Lord] in order to control that many monsters. Do you think that their access to the dungeon is what's allowing them to get their beasts?"

It was a simple enough creature, but laced with hidden meanings. If that was the case, then there was a very real possibility that the soldiers would want to mount a mission into the Hive, go through the dungeon, and close the demon access point before they got any more.

But that would mean entering the dungeon, and Max was scared for the soldier's lives, even with how high level they were.

So Max pulled out his arrangements of maps, including the first one that he had found, as well as the tapestries, just to show Licia how dangerous the dungeon was.

"Dead Gods, what is that?" One of the soldiers breathed, upon seeing the size of the dungeon. Another pointed at the beast at the bottom of the map, where the big boss was, and cried out, "What the fuck is _that?_"

"Honestly, I don't know. It's probably the big bad boss or something, right? I already fought hard enough in the dungeon, and plan on fighting through it eventually. But you guys have to realize that this area right at the top of the dungeon is likely only the least dangerous area in it. And while that first area was 'easy' enough, I still almost died about 4 times while down there."

Max pointed at the Hydra, right near the entrance to the Antinium Hive. "This is a Hydra. I don't know how strong you're supposed to be when fighting them, so I snuck by while it wasn't looking at me. It's at the _top of the dungeon_. Then, this area here is packed with monsters. This entire length that you'd need to go through is filled to the brim with beasts that could rip a man, or woman, to shreds.

"You'd need to make the journey of just under two days just to reach the demon access point, and there's no telling what you'd find there. This map was clearly outdated, since the Antinium Hive was still marked as Ants. Who knows how far the demons have spread into the dungeon? You'd almost be better off just marching to their front gates and fighting them head on."

Max could see that he had successfully dissuaded them. "Look, I'm all for crippling the Demon army, but going through the dungeon to try and shut off their access to monsters is not the best way to go about it. You'd be putting yourself in unnecessary danger, and even if you managed to make it down and return unscathed, that's a minimum excursion of 4 days. Who's to say whatever is in the Hive right now won't leave while you leave your posts? You'd need to plan this attempt for weeks, maybe even months."

Licia nodded, and gave Max a look of respect. "Do you have any [Tactician] Classes? Perhaps some sort of military ranks? That was a surprisingly well thought out counter to what I had barely been hinting at."

Max shook his head. "Nah, just a swashbuckler with a brain. You don't survive for days underground without food or water without one. Anyways, is there any way that I can join you guys when you head back to wherever you need to report to? I don't necessarily feel comfortable wandering in Demon territory looking for civilisation by myself."

Licia nodded. "As far as I'm concerned, you're a civilian. Even if you fight monsters for a living, that accident with the teleport spell put you in serious danger. Now that you're here, it would be prudent of us to keep you safe. If you'd be willing, maybe we can take you back to base and we can copy the maps that you have. We'd pay you for them, of course, but perhaps it could help us in the future."

Max frowned, but nodded. "I still can't stress how dangerous the dungeon is enough to you guys. There were thousands of dead Antinium lining their hive. I fear that they delved too far into the dungeon and were torn to shreds trying to escape from the dungeon's wrath. I only plan on coming back with a party that I can trust. But until I hit level 30, I don't want to come back."

One of the guards looked at Max with incredulity. "What level are you? That is, if you don't mind me asking."

Max gave that wry grin, and responded, "Level 6, between my two classes."

And the camp went silent for the fourth time that day, before unbelieving laughter filled the air.


	11. Chapter 11

"So tell me again just what a [Swashbuckler] is and does? I've heard of them before, but you don't exactly get to meet them everyday here in Rhir." One of the guardsmen, a tanned man who went by the name Qum Miao asked the young man, taking a long drag from his tankard.

Max considered this. He had given a little bit of thought before coming to his choice in the dungeon for which class he wanted to become. "Swashbucklers are a lot like knights, in a way. We don't exactly have large groups- orders that we tie ourselves to, but we try and live by a code of ethics, and try and uphold that code. My code is that I'll try and fight against forces that would cause injustice and harm."

Qum leaned forward and slapped Max across the back. "That's pretty cool. You know, I've always wanted to be a [Knight] myself. Something about fighting for the King and the betterment of the country always stuck with me as a kid, and that's why I'm here, defending from monster attacks before they reach the walls."

If there was one thing that Max could do well, it was gaining knowledge and using it to ensure his survival. Right now, he had the guards' trust, especially since he had spent the past couple of days helping them defeat a few of the monsters that came out of the Antinium Hive. He'd gained 2 levels in his [Monster Hunter] class, and by using his [Monster Appraisal] skill, he'd given the soldiers some solid information on learning their weaknesses and figuring out the patterns of attacks.

The soldiers had warmed up to him very quickly after he'd helped them kill what they'd called an Arkora. It had been a flying fish with tentacles and poisonous gas had spilled from its mouth.

Regardless, Max had been helping the guards fight monsters and they'd come to respect his abilities as a [Monster Hunter].

"Tell me about the walls," Max asked his new friend, "There wasn't a lot of books on them in my hometown, and I'm interested in them."

Qum took a bite of his food, before pointing towards the horizon. "There are 4 walls, though I've heard some rumors that they're trying to build a fifth one. Fortifications were being made, towers and the like, you know how it is. But apparently the King rescinded the order or something, and there hasn't been much progress recently. Anyways, the Walls help keep out the monsters, or Demons, from approaching our society. Fat lot of good that did us recently, with the Demons able to march a whole fucking army up to the castle itself."

He took another drink, and swallowed, before continuing. "The Walls are pretty defensible, and have some enchantments and shit that fight off the forces of darkness. There were some rumors amongst the guards of a couple of [Heroes] that got summoned, but apparently they turned out to be a couple of kids with little experience actually holding any weapons. There were a couple that were strong, a [Knight] boy and a [Mage] girl, but the real interesting fellow was some sort of [Jester], some sort of [Clown] or something.

Max had started to look around camp, looking for more information once Qum had veered off topic, but his attention snapped back at the mention of clowns. That wasn't something that he'd thought that he would hear about in this world.

"A… [Clown]? Did I hear you say that right?"

Qum wiped his mouth with a napkin and grunted. "That's right. Poor fellow went insane, I heard. But he had all sorts of crazy ass powers, like teleporting all across the battlefield and stealing the enemy's weapons right from their hands. Scary fellow, if you ask me. Definitely not someone you'd want to meet, given his insanity. I heard the royalty fear interacting with him. But anyways, back to the walls. We're close to the Fourth Wall. There's a couple of villages near it, shame what happened to Karaz a few months back, it got hit with Demons and the guards on duty were slaughtered. The only thing that drove the demons back was actually that insane clown dude."

Max stood and paced, something that he did a lot while he thought. It certainly helped his muscles move, and he didn't want to remain sitting when he had already finished his food. "That's certainly interesting. You said that the [Clown] went insane?"

"Aye, eyewitnesses said that the dude's eyes had that glint of madness that only those poor souls who gain the [Insanity] condition have. Dude went mad and slaughtered the Demons while bleeding out and had broken bones. They apparently showed up on scene of the [Clown] rocking back and forth over the dead bodies of twenty or so Demons, with this manic grin on his face."

"That sounds a lot like something from home, crazy [Clowns]. I…" Max trailed off. He wasn't about to reveal things about my world to some random stranger, that's how you start falling down the rabbit hole. A rabbit hole that led to bombs and world wars. But crazy clowns was definitely an Earthen concept, not something that happened naturally in a fantasy based world. "Usually those guys end up as some sort of criminal, murdering people left and right."

The guard stood as well and led the [Swashbuckler] over to the fire pit as he continued the conversation. "I can definitely see that. Crazy ass clowns, whatever they are. But yeah, so we're near the Fourth Wall, it's the north-most one. It isn't perfect, of course, too often monsters and Demons are able to get past it, but nobody's ever pushed past the First Wall, so at least we have that going for us."

One of the other guards, this one a man with a scar on his chin, piped up, "Stop overloading the kid with information!"

"Fuck off Bansonn, I'm 22!" Max shouted to the soldier. The other guards around the fire pit laughed at Bansonn's expense, and Max continued with, "I asked him about it myself. If you really are that averse to learning then maybe you should get some earplugs!"

"Don't tell my guards to fuck off, Caiden, or they'll pour water on your face in the middle of the night."

Max turned and nodded at Licia. He held some degree of respect for her; she was pretty good at getting the guards to do what she wanted, and she had a really good skill, one that let her telepathically talk with her soldiers and give them orders. It had a small range at the moment, but her ability to organize her units and give them cohesive orders in the middle of combat meant that she was an invaluable asset on the battlefield. She was hoping to level up and actually join the brigades to take on the Demon forces come the end of summer.

"Duly noted, captain. I'll make sure to sleep lightly tonight, just in case." Max smiled at the rest of the company. "And don't you dare try anything with me, I sleep with my rapier in hand, just in case of night time attacks!"

Bansonn swore, "Damnit captain, don't just tell him what I'm planning on doing!" He gave a grin before continuing, "But seriously, you ask a lot of questions, does wherever you're from really not have information on Rhir?"

I gave a shrug. "Yeah, Laconia doesn't exactly have a berth of knowledge on this area, and I'd really rather be up to date on the locale if I'm gonna be stuck here for a while."

"Where is Laconia anyways?"

Well, Max couldn't tell them that he was from a place called New Hampshire, right? He thought back to what he'd heard of recent planet news and made up an answer.

"It's close to the Order of seasons, off by the Kallinad lands."

One of the other guards, a woman [Sorceress] by the name of Mersa piped up, "Oh, then you must be proud of Wil, for winning the right of a question of the Titan! That was crazy, how he sailed an army of ships almost fifteen hundred miles in ten days without anybody noticing!"

Max had heard a little bit about the games from the guards, but this new information was a little mind boggling to him.

"He did what?" Max regretted his words the instance they left his mouth, and saw a couple of the guards look at him strangely.

"You must have heard about that, right? Wil Kallinad sailed an army of ships all the way to Daquin from the Order of Seasons. You must have known about it, since you say you lived nearby."

Max scrambled for an answer to cover for his earlier mistake. "I was a little caught up in a large… Hunting trip. You know, hunting monsters and what-not. And then the whole teleporting mishap. I had no idea that he had pulled off something so astounding!" The young man didn't really have to feign being impressed at the accomplishment, since it certainly was something.

"Oh yeah. He didn't win the game itself, that went to the Lizardgirl, but he impressed the Titan with his strategy and apparently was offered a Question."

"And he really made it past Tulm the Mithral without getting noticed? What an absolute baller!" Max had heard enough gossip to know at least a little about the politics and events of the other continents. It was how he was going to fake his persona of being decently knowledgeable while also giving him the ability to learn more.

Mersa looked at him weirdly, simply asking, "Baller?"

Max gave her a grin. "It's a term based off a game from my hometown, where you use a ball and try and score points with it. It just means that he's impressive."

Two of the guards that had been looking at him weirdly shrugged and resumed their own conversations, while some of the others had been drawn into this one. Or at least, they would have, had a short horn blast not been sounded at that moment.

One blast meant a monster threat from the dungeon. Max had gotten startled the first night when he'd awoken to the sound, and had stumbled about confused for a minute or two before he had started helping the guards.

This time, his hand was on his rapier in an instant, and he rushed, along with Licia and the other guards, to meet up with those engaging the beast.

'_Guards, what kind of beast are we facing up against?'_ Licia called into the minds of all of those who had taken up arms, including Max, since he'd volunteered his services while they were caring for him.

She got an answer, and then informed the rest of them, '_We've got an incursion of 7 Mantoris coming through the eastern tunnel entrance. All guards with metal armor, form a shield wall. Archers, aim for their bodies and legs. Max says the legs are weak and without support they can't fight well. They rely on sound to see, and with your heavy armor hurry with the formation before they catch anyone.'_

Max remembered his fight with the Mantoris, or the scythe armed creature with horse legs down in the tunnels after his fight with the dragonling. He'd relayed all of the information he had on the monsters that he'd fought down there, and they'd shared what knowledge they had with him as well.

It took him and the guards a minute to reach the location of the battle, and the Mantoris were already engaged with the formation. Luckily, with Licia's ability to talk into the minds of the soldiers, they'd quickly snapped to the formation, and it looked like they were holding the line well, though the Mantoris looked like they might break the wall.

"[Reinforced Shield Wall]!" Licia yelled, arriving on the scene. Instantly the wall of shields snapped together more tightly, and the Mantoris that had been attempting to break though got an arrow to the chest, making it cry out in outrage.

'_Reinforcements, pincer around the sides of the Mantoris. Focus the legs and tails. Archers, cease! Casters, slow them down! Leave not a single one alive!'_

Max followed a group of soldiers to the right of the phalanx, before converging on the group of Mantoris. He lashed out and cut off the tail of one of the beasts as it attempted to cut at the guard to the right of him, and the guard used the moment to decapitate the off balance beast.

Another Mantoris came for Max, but suddenly it was rooted to the ground with literal _roots_ that rose from the ground and ensnared its legs.

Max swiped at the creature's arm, and drew blood. His allies converged on the immobile beast and cut it down.

Within the minute, the battle was over. No more than a couple of spells and a single skill had been used.

"Good show, boys and girls! And good insight on how to fight these beasts Max, or we would have lost a guard or two! Usually it's a lot harder to take these things on." Licia said as the soldiers returned to camp.

"All thanks to my [Monster Appraisal] skill. If I hadn't gotten it after fighting the dragonling down there, I'm certain the one I fought would have killed me."

"Since you were only level 6 when you came out of there, I don't doubt it. I've lost good men and women above level 20 to these bastards. It sure is useful, that class you have. One that specializes in hunting monsters? Those are pretty uncommon."

Max sat around the firepit once again, and a couple of the other guards piped up. "Yeah, that class sure is unique! It would be really nice to have a class and skills that's specifically for fighting monsters!"

Murmers of agreement could be heard from the others, and Max just gave them a smile. He didn't want to tell them that he had a thought in his head since killing his first beast down in the dungeon that he was hunting monsters, and had somehow gotten the class based off of a video game from his world. How were you supposed to explain the concept of a game where you pretended to be an adventurer who explores, when there were literally adventurers in this world?

"I got lucky, I suppose. I was fighting so many monsters that I had this errant thought that I was like some sort of hunter who killed them specifically, and it turned into a class for me. I really don't know what else to tell you."

Licia spoke up, "It's known that you'll gain classes based off intent and cultural norms. That's why some people get [Warrior] classes and some get [Fighter], even though it's basically the same thing. It's also why specialized classes can exist, like [Fencer], instead of just [Swordsman]. If you layabouts really wanted to get skills that would help you kill monsters, and you did it enough, you'd gain them."

That was new information, but it confirmed what Max had hypothesized. Classes were gained on the basis of both meeting the requirements, as well as intention and the situations one found themselves in. That begat further investigation, such as whether Max could craft scenarios where he could get specific skills. Like, if he put on weights while fighting with the intention of increasing his speed with them off, like Rock Lee from Naruto, would he gain a skill that did that?

These were the kinds of questions that he thought of that he kept quiet about. It would seem weird that a young adult would have questions about the levelling system, especially since he had barely any levels when he first joined them. He'd at least explained that he'd had a class consolidation, which had explained his overall low levels, but he still didn't want to raise any questions amongst the guards that he couldn't answer.

After an hour of joking with the other guards, Max started to head back to bed, before he heard the sole blast of a horn sound, and he gave a sigh before turning and running to help the others stop the monster threat.


	12. Chapter 12

After the week was over, Licia's regiment was scheduled to be replaced by another, and Max had finally headed back to civilization with them. There had been no way that he was going to try and navigate a dangerous magical world without help from anybody else, especially if what the soldiers had said was true, and that the continent that he was on was the most prolific with monsters.

That's how you got yourself killed, after all, what kind of idiot would wander around Rhir's wastelands without help?

Qum clapped a hand on Max's shoulder after they had gotten back to their base of operations, a guard tower along the Fourth Wall.

"So, what do you plan on doing once we get back? I know that you're probably itching to get back to Terandria, what with your family being there and all. I sure know that we could use someone with your Skills in our army, or at least a fighting core for hunting down monsters."

Max thought about it for a moment. He didn't exactly have a way to get back to Earth, and while the Kalinad lands sounded nice, he wasn't just going to drop everything that he had going here to return to a land that wasn't actually his home.

"I think…" Max paused, gathering his thoughts, "That I'll stick around in Rhir for a while. There are a lot more monsters here, which will give me ample experience to actually fight and level up. Plus I… Don't exactly have any more family in Terandria."

Qum's smile faded from his face as he realized Max's (False) implications. "Aw shit, man. I didn't realize you were an orphan. My bad man."

Max gave a half hearted smile to the soldier, feigning a look of sorrow. In reality, his family most likely Didn't exist in Terandria, although if he was going to get teleported into a magical world, then who's to say that his family weren't also affected? He thought about his younger sister and his dad, and how it was unlikely that he'd ever see them again.

"It's alright, Qum. It's been a while since i've seen my dad or sister. They both decided to pack up and travel a while before I did, and then when my mom fell ill…"

It wasn't exactly lying, just not relaying all of the details. Max had, in fact taken care of his mother while she had been terminally sick, until the point in time where she had died when he was 20. That had been two years ago at this point. It still stung him, but he was determined not to let something so depressing bring him down. It wasn't his fault that his mom had died.

But he would still do what he could to spite death. While he was here, Death would not take him.

On the other hand, he _was _really intrigued by this giant boss creature at the bottom of the dungeon. He assumed that it was ridiculously strong though, so it wouldn't do to try and take it on until he hit level 40 or 50 before trying to take it down.

"Sucks to hear that, Max. But if you're staying in Rhir for a while, my offer stands. We soldiers sure could use someone like you."

Max had actually been weighing the benefits of that a couple of nights ago. He'd been working with the soldier's for about a week already, and was considering joining up with them. On the positive side, he'd be able to join something that was bigger than just him, maybe forge some friendships and what not.

On the other hand… Autonomy was always something that Max had wanted. Ever since he had gotten stuck with caring for his mother, he'd always been a little bitter that he didn't also get the chance to go off on his own. He wanted some time to experience this new world for himself before he settled anywhere. Not to mention, he was a [Swashbuckler] and a [Monster Hunter]. Being a Swashbuckler meant that he was going to try and learn how to fight with his rapier better, and that usually meant duelling. He didn't think that soldiers, with learning to fight in a team, was conducive to optimizing his skills.

So when he had gained his first [Soldier] Level that night, he promptly cancelled it. He didn't want to get bogged down by fighting alongside a bunch of other soldiers, especially since they didn't seem _that_ high level. Sure, all of them were above level 20, and Licia was almost level 30, but Max had gained 8 [Warrior] and 4 [Survivor] Levels before they had been upgraded into lower level forms of advanced versions.

Max wasn't sure if having upgraded classes meant that they'd be harder to level in, but he was already back to level 8 between his two classes, and he'd only been in this world for two weeks. Clearly if he kept doing what he had already been doing, he'd get stronger in no time. He wasn't sure if sticking with the soldiers was a good idea, since they seemed to stagnate. Sure, they practiced fighting every day, and they actually fought monsters, but the [Soldier] class wasn't something that he wanted to get bogged down by.

"I appreciate the offer, but I think adventuring is more my style. I'm going to need to kill a lot more monsters in order to get this class leveled up, and I value my freedom to do what I'd like. I'm going to have to decline your offer, Qum. But that doesn't mean that we can't be friends!"

Qum shook his head, but he had a smile on his face. "Absolutely. I've been fighting by your side for a week now, and I'd trust you at my back any day." Qum held out his hand, and Max took it for a handshake. "It's been a pleasure working with you Max. Stop by sometime."

"Of course, Qum. I'll probably work to keep the towns safe for a bit out here, before going and seeing what kind of work that I can find as an adventurer. Stay safe yourself!"

Qum pulled back from his handshake. "You know me, always jumping into danger. I just can't help it!" Both men let out a chuckle. "I should be getting back to work. There's always something I can be doing, and I'm sure that Captain Stormrider wants to talk with you about those dungeon maps now that we're back."

He walked away, and Max turned towards the door that they had stopped in front of. It was a captain's office, wherein lay Licia. Max knocked twice on the door, and entered on hearing a "Come on in".

"Max, thank you for stopping by today. I hope that you have been finding the Wall to be hospitable?"

Max thought back to his first impression of the Fourth Wall, and had to admit that he had been decently impressed. It was just as tall as the Great Wall of China, if not a little bit bigger than it's average of 23 feet tall at a solid 30 feet. It stretched for miles, though Max was sure that if the Blighted Kingdom wanted a solid wall, that he should endeavor to connect the walls. Sure, the wall was defensible and capable of protecting the kingdom somewhat, but in all reality the fact that there were gaps meant that the Demons had surefire ways around, it just meant that they had to waste a couple extra days travelling.

Max's first day back had been filled with a deep appreciation as he took in the Wall and the amount of work that must have been put into it, and then as the guards who were already there treated him as though he was welcome, considering that he had joined Licia's party on the way back to the Wall.

"Everybody has been friendly enough so far, and it's been nice to finally stretch my legs for once instead of being cooped up in the small camp. How has your return found you?"

Licia smiled at the younger man. "I've had to file some paperwork, mostly reporting the encounters that were made while at the Hive, all resources used in addition to any deaths that we sustained out there. I made some small notes on the monsters that we fought for the first time, as well as any insights you gave us on monsters that we've already fought. It's a struggle to fight a near constant stream of monsters, and I've been able to confirm thanks to you that they are coming from a dungeon, and not just random occurrences."

Max nodded, before pulling his bag of holding off of his belt before taking out his maps of the dungeon. "I take it that you wanted copies of these? In all honesty, I probably don't even need them myself, at least not for the moment. I plan on returning once I reach a higher level, but I'm nowhere near the strength that I need to be at the moment, so you guys can just have the maps, at least for safekeeping before I return."

Licia paused, looking up from her desk where she had been pulling out some papers. "That's… very generous of you. We will likely be attempting to mount an expedition into the dungeon at our earliest convenience, a recon mission to see just how far the Demons' corruption has infiltrated the dungeon. Actually, we have a [Cartographer] here at the Wall, who's job is to do scout work and draw maps of enemy territories. If you wouldn't mind, I can bring her here and have her ask you questions about the dungeon, and maybe she can draw a clearer map than what we have here."

The maps on the table were fairly outdated. Not only that, but there were certainly blank spaces on it, signs that the dungeon had been unclear even to those who had drawn it out. There was one basic paper map, but the tapestries themselves showed the dungeon as a whole rather than specific details.

"Absolutely. I'd be happy to provide any insights that might help you in your incursion into the dungeon. Anything to save the lives of our soldiers."

Our soldiers. Max had already begun to think of those that he had been working with for the past week to be friends of his. Even Bansonn, the bastard.

Max waited for only a minute before another knock was heard on the door. "Enter" Licia said, and Max saw an middle aged woman walk into the room. She had greying hairs, as well as eyes that shifted and looked around the room, pausing on the maps on the table before turning to Licia.

"Captain, you sent for me?" the woman asked, glancing briefly at Max.

"Indeed I did Officer Hoss. This young man is Maxwell Caiden, a [Monster Hunter] of some small skill. He was the target of a waylaid Teleport spell, and ended up below the surface. Low and behold, there's a sunken dungeon underneath the Hive. He fought his way to the surface, where we took him in. We were hoping that you might be able to question him and draw up some clearer maps than what he'd been able to find.

The woman, who Max now identified as Hoss, took a critical look at him and his attire. He had his rapier at his side, as well as his ring of waterwalking. Aside from that, he currently just had some leather armor on over a basic tunic that had been provided by the soldiers.

"Let me take a moment to look at these maps. I'll see what I can do once I have a better idea of what I'm working with."

Licia gestured to the maps on the table, and Hoss stepped up. "Caiden, was it? Come here and point out to me where exactly you ended up in the dungeon."

Max approached the maps. "I entered right around here," he said, pointing to the area that was labelled with Idex. "There was a beast, which I assume was the Idex, that…" He began to tell her about the entrance of the dungeon, before she eventually interrupted him.

"Enough, I understand the picture. You said that there are a couple of mazes right here in this grey area? I'm going to use a skill. Don't worry about the name of it. [Mapmaker's Interrogation]. Now, tell me about this dungeon's layout.

Max felt himself compelled by her skill, and his mind instantly remembered more details about the dungeon that had begun to fade. He had the maze memorized after having traveled through it four or five times, and he explained in as much detail as he could. He went into talking about the healing fountain that he had made his base, and about the garden as well.

When Max stopped talking, he drew in a long breath of air. When had his voice become scratchy? Had he really been talking for that long?

Licia provided a cup of water, which Max greedily drank down, and Hoss looked down at the map that she had drawn up while Max had told her everything he knew. It was much more refined than the map that he had found, and was a perfect copy of everything that Max had traveled through, and even some spots that Max hadn't remembered. Hoss had even managed to get a rudimentary pathway down through the Hive to the dungeon, which Max hadn't even considered before.

Hoss spoke up. "Well done boy. You've earned your rest. This map is extremely well detailed, at least for the first level of the dungeon. How long did you say that you were down there?"

Max thought back to his time in the dungeon. "It was on the fourth day that I killed the second Idex… so about a week total underground before I made it to the surface. It was the sixth day that I killed the dragonling, and it took me until the following day to reach the surface."

Hoss paused for a moment before turning towards Licia. "Did he just say he killed a dragonling?"

Licia smiled, and with a dry tone replied, "I _did_ say that he was a [Monster Hunter], right? He showed us the scales too when he reached our camp. Seems like the dragonling had taken up residence in the old chambers of their High Queen. Apparently there's a treasure trove down there too, and Max here couldn't fit all of it into his bag of holding."

Hoss took another look at the boy, before nodding in a show of respect. "Dragons, no matter their age, are notoriously difficult to kill. It certainly says a lot about you that you were able to kill one, especially at such a young age. We'll make an investigation into the Hive about recovering the rest of the treasure for you from the dragonling's lair, since you've provided us with these maps."

Max nodded in appreciation. "Thank you, Officer Hoss. If it isn't any trouble, however, I'd like the Wall here to make use of the gold that you find down there. There was more than I currently know what to do with down there, and while I'm sure that I could eventually make use of the gold down there, I would let Licia's cohort make use of it in thanks for taking me in for the past week.

The two women were stunned into silence, before Hoss nodded. "Noted. Now, if there is nothing else that I am needed for here, I'd like to take these maps to our superiors to discuss this new information about the dungeon and the access that the demons have to it."

Licia nodded, and Hoss left the room. Silence reigned, before the Captain turned to Max. "Are you sure that you want to give me all the remaining gold down there?"

Max smiled at the young commander. "Think about it as a token of our friendship. Make sure your soldiers get properly outfitted, and then get something for yourself too. Maybe something that will be the boost that gets you into the field fighting the Demon frontlines, like you wanted."

Licia smiled at Max, and held out a hand, which he took. "Thank you, Max. It means a lot."

Max smiled back at her, before looking around and sighing. "You're welcome. I really should be going though. Need to go kill some stronger monsters, after all."

"If you're looking for work, the outlying villages always need some sort of protection, even with the Wall looming nearby. You could also head for one of our main cities, Cudior lies a hundred miles South, and I'm sure that you can sign up as a proper Adventurer there and get some good work. You can definitely spend what gold you have there, it's a trading city that specializes in magical items."

That sounded... like a really good plan of action, actually. "Thanks Licia. That'll probably be what I do then. Head for the city, that is, and gear up. Once I've leveled up a bit, I'll return and begin working on clearing my way through this dungeon."

Licia nodded at the man as he strode from her office, before looking at her desk. "He had only 8 levels in [Warrior], and 4 in [Survivor] when he killed a Dragonling. Those consolidated into stronger classes after he slayed it, but he must be some sort of prodigy. Just how strong will you become, Maxwell Caiden?"

Meanwhile, Max had made his way out of the compound, and receiving a compass to guide him, he started heading south. He needed to get stronger if he wanted to survive in this world, but at this point, he was more than just a [Survivor]. He was going to Live, and go on the Adventure that he had always yearned for in his world.

He was going to take this world by storm, as a man who would fight for the helpless, and destroy the forces of darkness that would mean it harm. A defender against evil. There was a reason that he had chosen the [Swashbuckler] class. He needed a reason to live, and he'd found it.

He grinned to himself as he walked down the dusty road. This was just the start of his adventure, and nothing short of a God would take him down.

**Author's note: This concludes Maxwell Caiden: Survivor. I'll Begin writing a continuation of his story soon, and probably add a short chapter onto this story once I've published it, to let my followers know about the new story when it comes out. In the meanwhile, check out my other story, Zachary Wendel: Slayer. set in the same world, as well as Rhir, Zach is an incredibly lucky individual who befriends a Wyvern. He'll be another character that will eventually cross paths with Max, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he'll instantly be friends with him. Check out that story if you want to understand Zach's backstory. I also plan on introducing more characters in their own origin arcs as separate stories, so follow me as an author to see when I post those. You can also find me on Archive of Our Own under the same username, and I've posted the stories under the series called The Wanderers of Rhir, in case that makes following my stories easier for you. Anyways, see you all around, and leave a review for how you think I should challenge Max next. **


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